Education & Me dicaid Focus of Possible Cuts

March 26, 2010

The House’s cuts to education and other areas amount to cutting to $224.1 million from Gov. Jay Nixon’s budget, which he has said could be $500 million short next year.

When the bill heads to the Senate next week, senators will be tasked with finding cuts other than education.

"I do think there are some other cuts that will be made, and those cuts will be in Medicaid," said Rep. Jay Wasson, R-Nixa.

But there are restrictions to what areas of the state’s health insurance system for the poor legislators can cut. The federal recovery act requires states to maintain current income eligibility rate to get stimulus funds.

Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, said the cut to education gives up a budget bargaining chip for the House with the Senate.

"I don’t want to give away the farm until we have to," said Lampe, who voted against all 13 budget bills on Wednesday.

The restrictions to cutting Medicaid could mean more cuts in the education budget, Wasson said.

Wasson said he would support a proposal to cut funding for summer school programs to prevent further cuts to funding to classroom instruction during the regular school year.

On Wednesday, the House education committee held a hearing for three bills that would reduce spending on K-12 education by changing the foundation formula for public schools.

Rep. Maynard Wallace, R-Thornfield, put forward two bills that would eliminate funding for summer school and extra money urban and suburban districts get for higher costs of living. Wallace acknowledged that the proposal to get rid of additional funds for higher cost of living is likely dead on arrival.

But Wallace, a former educator, said lawmakers need to take a serious look at whether summer school is a core funding responsibility for the state.

"My single motivation here is to find a way to keep the cuts away from the regular school year," he said.

Wallace’s bill would get rid of laws requiring schools to offer summer school.

"This is not to keep schools from having summer school," he said. "It’s simply to take it out of the funding formula."

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education estimates eliminating summer school from the funding formula could save the state $119.7 million in 2011 and $131.6 million in 2012. By most estimates, the state could face a deficit of up to $1 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.

Stockton schools Superintendent Vicki Sandberg attended the hearing to get an assessment of how to prepare her district’s 2011 fiscal year budget.

Sandberg, who did not testify, said summer school is vital to providing remediation to students who fall behind or fail a course. She said nearly a third of the 1,050 students in the Cedar County district took a summer school course last year.

"If they cut it out of the funding formula, we can’t afford to have the summer school program our students are used to," Sandberg said.

Acknowledging that the state is going broke, education interest groups have m ostly agreed to go along with the House decision to not fully fund the foundation formula, saving about $106 million. Nixon had proposed an $18 million increase in his budget in January, before acknowledging it was up to $500 million out of balance.

But the proposal to eliminate funding for summer school drew the ire of education lobbyists.

"When you look at your choice, I think you will decide this is the least bad choice," said Franc Flotron, a lobbyist for EdisonLearning, a private firm that administers summer school classes for 27 Missouri districts and 39,000 students.

The funding formula has been tested in court, so suspending a scheduled increase in funding would likely survive a legal challenge, Flotron said.

"This is the safest way to go," Flotron said.