Districts May Lose Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Because of Cutback

January 13, 2010

It is the cutback heard across the state. Governor Butch Otter plans to balance the budget by trimming public education spending.

Otter proposes a 1.6 percent cut, roughly $27 million, to school districts who say they’ve already cut as much as they possibly can from their budgets.

District superintendents said the cutback proposal didn’t come as a surprise.

The majority of the state budget is funneled into public education and when the state comes up short, superintendents know they will too.

District 93 in Bonneville County said they will have to cut back between $600,000 and $ 720,000 if the prop osal is accepted by the legislature.

That is on top of already cutting $2.8 million from their budget since the recession.

Shelley School District is a little smaller, and will have to shave $160,000. Superintendent Brian Jolley said they are already cut down to the bare bone.

"We are cutting into the bones. We’re not just bare bones; we are cutting into the bones," he laughed.

State Superintendent Tom Luna said a rainy day fund set aside to shield public education from cuts has all but been depleted, leaving few funding sources left.