New math on schools money

After the budget documents were released, Democrats insisted it contained a $190 million cut to education. That cut, they said, would cost public schools the equivalent of 3,400 teachers.

Both sides are right in their own way.

If lawmakers had made no changes, public schools would have had $332.6 million less to work with in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Republicans leaders say they should not be held accountable for federal spending that had dropped off the map. At the same time, they acknowledged that the flex cut was a problem for schools. 

The House and Senate budget addressed these items in different ways. The House version of the budget would have wiped out the combined $332.6 million cut next year by using a combination of money raised through taxes and on-times savings. Senators refused to use one-time money to meet recurring needs, but did keep the flex cut from going up by $74 million. 

The bill that is heading to Gov. Bev Perdue is a compromise between those two positions. 

Republicans say the new budget bill spends $250 million more on education than last year. That’s correct if you look at three things:

Those three items total $255 million in new state spending on the education budget.

Still, education advocates and Democrats seemed less than overjoyed. 

“However, the state spending plan approved today is insufficient to meet the needs of North Carolina's public school children and the educators who serve them,” N.C. Association of Educators President Sheri Strickland said in a statement after details of the spending plans came out.

On the House floor, Democrats said that the GOP-crafted budget was $190 million short of a “break even” budget.

And State School Board Chairman William Harrison said that the budget falls short of what he had hoped for.

“I don’t think the budget provides much relief at all. There are still going to be additional cuts that need to be made. I just don’t think they did what they need to do to do right by the boys and girls of North Carolina,” Harrison said.

Keep in mind, boosting STATE spending by $255 million over last year is still $77.6 million short of erasing the $332.6 combined state and federal cuts schools were facing.

And Democrats point out that the pay raise money and funds for the Excellent Public Schools Act can’t be used to keep or hire more individual educators. The EduJobs money, school superintendents say, was mostly used to pay for teachers, librarians, teaching assistants and the like. So while that $112 million does boost spending on schools, it doesn't address the problem that EduJobs helped to fix. 

That combination of factors, Democrats say, means that $190 million of the $332.6 million combined state-federal cut that schools were facing at the beginning of the budget cycle remain. What would be more precise to say is while the state provided more money for education overall, there is $190 million less available to pay for teaching positions.

A couple of final notes might help put some of this in context. 

The budget is now in Perdue's hands. She has 10 days to sign the bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without her signature.