Boise News

state politics: idaho

Nonini Asks for $45 Million for Idaho Education

By Sharon Fisher, 2-18-08

Representative Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, chair of the House Education Committee, asked the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee to fund $45 million in enhancements for the education budget.

In the unenviable position of the first germane committee report after last week’s bad economic news, which resulted in a recommendation of just a 3% salary increase for state employees, Nonini presented five points, starting with a raise for teachers comparable to that recommended for state employees, for a total of $30 million.

Nonini also repeated Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna’s request from last year for $3.5 million to pay for concurrent enrollment, or college courses taken by students while still in high school, for every student who passed the 10th grade achievement test on the first try. Students who take college credit classes in high school overwhelmingly go on to college, he said. (Which no doubt is true, but one could point out that the sort of student with enough initiative to take college classes in high school would likely have gone on to college anyway.) The $3.5 million would pay the $55-$65 per credit hour charged by Idaho colleges for those credits. Last year, JFAC members turned the initiative down, saying it should be needs-based.

Nonini also said he would be presenting to the education committee later today a bill for an “Idaho Education Network,” modeled after the extensive – and expensive – Utah Education Network that enables many Utah high school students to accumulate credits in Utah colleges.

Other points brought up by Nonini included $4 million on a math initiative, $3.5 million in one-time money for a so-called “longitudinal” data system, which tracks students throughout their time in the Idaho school system, and a $3.5 million increase in discretionary funds to the districts, all of which were not recommended by Governor Butch Otter for the education budget, though he did include the longitudinal data system in the Superintendent’s budget.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.