Montana education chief, Linda McCulloch, recommends increased spending

Montana needs to raise tax revenue — not cut it another $70 million — to deal with an expected $200 million budget shortage, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch said Monday in Bozeman.

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

Relying exclusively on cutting taxes is a "short-sighted strategy" that carries "the real danger" of damaging state government so much that it can’t do its basic jobs and could hurt the state’s economy, McCulloch said. "The gear that drives economic development is education."

The prudent policy would be to combine cutting expenses with increasing revenue, she said at the Montana Fall Superintendents Conference, which attracted 160 school superintendents and county school superintendents from around the state.

During the Legislature’s special session in August, held to cope with a $57 million budget shortage, there was a lot of talk about how families cinch in their belts during hard times, she said.

In her family they tightened their belts, but her dad also went out and got extra weekend work, her mom took in ironing and she did more babysitting to bring in more money, she said.

McCulloch outlined a six-part funding package of requests to the 2003 Legislature, which meets in January. She plans to ask for increasing basic, per-pupil school funding by 3.7 percent and 3.2 percent in the 2004 and 2005 fiscal years.

She’ll recommend again that school districts with falling enrollment receive state dollars based on a three-year enrollment average. Another proposal would offer an incentive, a 20 percent pension boost, to teachers who work 30 years instead of retiring after 25 years.

McCulloch urged superintendents to bring lawmakers specific examples explaining how state budget cuts are affecting their schools to try to influence the outcome. "I am an eternal optimist," she said.

Cheryl Johannes, superintendent of the rural Anderson School District west of Bozeman, said later that superintendents "all recognize we’re in crisis. It could be a turning point for Montana. Our students score highly — it is a lot easier to maintain that than to wait until it crashes and try to fix it."

McCulloch also announced the award of a three-year federal grant totaling more than $980,000 to try to reduce the dropout rate among Montana’s Indian students. From eighth grade to graduation, nearly half now drop out, she said. Demonstration projects will be set up at six high schools at Box Elder, Browning, Heart Butte, Lame Deer, Poplar and Rocky Boy.

Dick Crofts, commissioner of higher education for the Montana University System, also spoke to the superintendents about upcoming proficiency tests that students will have to take in high school and pass to get into the state’s four-year colleges and universities. Next school year, high school juniors will take the tests in math and writing and will have their senior year to improve. Proficiency tests will be given to college freshmen entering in the fall of 2005, who are this year’s high school sophomores.

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