State school board toils over legislative mandate to cut or reallocate millions from budget

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Board of Education is grappling with how to navigate recent directives from the Utah Legislature to trim or reallocate $163 million of the state’s education budget.

The board last week received a letter from the chairs of the Legislature’s Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee, asking members to come up with recommendations to reduce the budget by 5%, or $295.8 million, by Friday — ahead of the subcommittee’s Jan. 21 meeting.

 

The letter said it was “important for the public education community to participate in the budget process for the coming year, as other areas of the state budget do.”

“Broad community support will help the subcommittee identify areas where funding adjustments are needed or where changes pose lower risk to maintaining student outcomes in public education,” the letter continued.

At Thursday’s meeting, Scott Jones, USBE’s deputy superintendent of operations, explained to the board that the recommendations only had to total around $163 million.

Laboriously, the board began deliberation that lasted over five hours and resulted in approved reductions just shy of $30 million, well shy of the requested $163 million in ongoing funding.

Jones clarified that the recommendations are less “cutting” from the budget and more “reducing and then reallocating.”

“If, for example, you say, we want to reduce the entire amount of state funding that currently supports this program, then later, or at your direction, or however the board wants to take that process, you can make the recommendation of where to reallocate that money to,” Jones told the board. “Cut implies that the money will completely go away, right?”

Nearly $9 million in Thursday’s reductions and reallocations came from the Utah Private Course Choice Empowerment program. While it’s 100% of the program’s budget, James said the board is now asking the Legislature to allocate it to one of the board’s funding requests.

“When they (Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee) sent this request to us to put together these recommendations for reductions and reallocations, it was communicated to the board that there will be, essentially, no new money, like a net zero … especially for ongoing funds from the Legislature for public education,” James said. “So that means, if we want anything — if the board wants anything that they don’t currently have — they have to cut it from somewhere else and move it.”

Hence, the reduction and reallocation phrasing.

Still, numerous board members spoke often and openly about their frustrations with the legislative mandate.

“I say this with all due respect, frankness and honesty: I think this whole process has been totally unfair to the board. We found out six days ago that we’re supposed to make a cut of almost $300 million, and we’re supposed to come up with a list (of programs). There’s panic across the state because of this,” board member Erin Longacre said.

Longacre argued the board should have the opportunity to meet with the subcommittee to talk about the cuts.

“I don’t want to communicate through letters or statements. We’re putting our name on millions of dollars in the state. We have got to sit down face-to-face and talk about this. And I don’t want to feel pressure today to make decisions on, again, six days (notice),” Longacre added.

Board member Sarah Reale said the directive and its timing make her “incredibly frustrated” with the Legislature.

“They have time to consider these things. Instead, they spring it on us a week before, or less than a week before, the legislative session,” Reale said. “I kind of go back to the question of like, do they respect us as a board? Do they respect our expertise? Do they care about our decisions? Do they care about the staff expertise and the staff, you know, looking at this from a big picture of looking at our system and saying, ‘Here’s what’s best for education.’ And honestly, the answer I keep coming back to is no.”

Reale said she’s encouraging her constituents concerned about possible cuts or reallocations to reach out to their representatives.

James said the $29.5 million in recommendations approved by the board will be submitted to the Public Education Appropriation Subcommittee for consideration, which will then submit its recommendations to the Executive Appropriations Committee to make the final call.

The initial recommendations will be discussed by the committee in conjunction with board leadership on Jan. 21. Despite the first total of $29.5 million, James said more programs could be added as meetings and discussions progress.

“From what we understand, this is the beginning of discussion. Budget priorities are always a standing item on the board’s weekly legislative meetings throughout the session,” James said. “We may revisit this next week, or in the weeks after, during the session. There may be things that are added to our recommendations, or we may just stick with what we did today.”

Two separate proposals detailing which programs are being considered for recommendation can be found here.