Legislative budget chief: St. Vrain could face teacher cuts, larger classes

Facing a state budget deficit of about $1.7 billion, state lawmakers will have no choice but to look at all areas of the state budget for cuts, including K-12 education funding, state Rep. Jack Pommer, D-House District 11 and chair of the Joint Budget Committee, said in Longmont Tuesday night.

Pommer, who represents parts of Longmont, spoke at Longmont High School at an informational forum on the expected state budget cuts to K-12 education sponsored by the St. Vrain Valley School District Board of Education.

The potential cuts have district parents concerned .

“We are here because we are concerned,” said Jodi Foy of Niwot, who has two students attending Niwot Elementary. “We have a long time to have children in the district, and we want to know what may happen.”
On Tuesday, Pommer gave a brief history of how the state came to be in its current financial crisis, pointing out that the Legislature cut taxes 24 times in the 1990s when the economy was good, while voters passed the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to ratchet down government spending and Amendment 23 to require increasing levels of K-12 funding. Those moves, plus the current poor economy, have caused revenues to fall by about $1 billion.

“I don’t know how we fix a structural deficit like this,” Pommer said. “We can’t raise taxes enough to fix this, even though Colorado has the fifth lowest state tax rate in the country. This is not a situation where you can tighten your belt, wait until the economy gets better, and then come out of it. It won’t work.”

Despite the constitutional requirements of Amendment 23, Pommer said state lawmakers have been told by legal counsel that they can cut K-12 funding. Gov. Bill Ritter has proposed cutting K-12 funding by $260 million for fiscal year 2010-11.

SVVSD officials estimate that the district could lose $11 million to $15 million dollars in state general funds.
General funds are used for employee salaries and to provide educational support, such as purchasing textbooks and classroom supplies, student transportation, and maintaining school buildings and grounds. General funds also support special education programs, school-based focus programs, charter schools and English as a second language programs .

SVVSD Superintendent Don Haddad told the audience that 86 percent of the district’s general fund budget is allocated to salaries. He pointed out that when the district had to cut $4.2 million from its 2008-09 budget, it required eliminating 85 full-time equivalent positions in the district.

“It will be very difficult to avoid cuts to staff,” he said .

Class sizes also may increase, Haddad said in response to a question. Currently the district has an average class size of 23.5 students per elementary class, 23.5 students in middle school classes and 26 students in high school classes.
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School Board President John Creighton urged audience members to pull together and let state leaders know that education is important.

“Let them also know that it isn’t political suicide to deal with the structural budget problems that Colorado faces,” he said.

“We’re like a two-income family that just had someone laid off,” he said. “We all need to work together to deal with this.”

Questions submitted by audience members asked why district officials promised to fund better salaries for teachers and lower class sizes with mill-levy override funds in 2008 if they were aware of impending state funding cuts.

“We didn’t know the severity of the budget cuts,” Haddad said. “The magnitude is far greater than we thought. We also thought the constitution would protect K-12 funding.”

“The state is no longer keeping up its part of the funding pact,” Pommer told the audience. “School districts can’t keep their promises to teachers because of the lack of state funding.”
Email: kcglasscock@comcast.net