{"id":5529,"date":"2012-04-13T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T18:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=5529"},"modified":"2012-10-23T21:56:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T03:56:36","slug":"study-questions-constitutionality-of-idahos-education-funding-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/04\/13\/study-questions-constitutionality-of-idahos-education-funding-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Questions Constitutionality Of Idaho’s Education Funding Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Albertogp123 \/ Flickr<\/p>

Study finds Idaho education funding has significantly decreased since 2000.<\/p><\/div>\n

A report released today<\/a> by the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy questions whether the state is meeting its constitutional duty<\/a> to “maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.”<\/p>\n

The report is authored by the center’s director Mike Ferguson<\/a>, who was also Idaho’s chief economist for 25 years.<\/p>\n

“One of the things I wanted to draw attention to is that unlike most state programs, public school funding is enshrined in the state constitution, it is basically different,” Ferguson says.<\/p>\n

Ferguson’s report examines<\/a> Idaho’s public school funding system from 1980 through 2013 (it includes the latest education budget for fiscal year 2013 which was signed into law recently.)<\/p>\n

The school funding report focuses on two key issues: <\/p>\n

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  1. A decline in funding for public school maintenance and operation (teacher salaries, support staff, utilities, etc.) since 2000.<\/li>\n
  2. An increase in relying on unequalized property tax levies in order to support school district maintenance and operation budgets.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here are the main findings of Ferguson’s study<\/a>:<\/p>\n