House Bill 173 is working its way through the required three readings in the Senate to become law. Lawmakers tout it as a way to trim $50 million off the allocations for K-12 education, saving up to $80 million over three years.

Although a revenue stream generated by a half-cent sales tax was removed from the bill’s language, its cuts rest predominantly on “mostly inactive health insurance plans” while increasing class sizes. It also claims to protect teacher salaries by moving them to a category all their own.

But as with most legislation, the devil is in the details. Jay Curtis, superintendent for Park County School District 1, said those proposals are not what they seem at first blush and will have unintended consequences. 

The largest complaint about the insurance reimbursements is it funds “ghost employees.” That is a misnomer, Curtis said.

The funding model employed by the state uses an algorithm that figures in the number of buildings and the average daily attendance — or the number of students in the district. The model then generates the number of positions recommended based on those figures. 

But there are positions that don’t get figured into the model, like school nurses in the Powell schools. Curtis considers those nurses indispensable considering the medical needs of students that can’t be effectively assessed by lay personnel. One school nurse was credited with saving the life of a student this school year. Those nurses might be considered “ghost employees” because they aren’t included in the funding model. 

Some items are overfunded while others are underfunded. Curtis said one of those underfunded categories is teacher salaries. At Powell, because schools are block grant funded, the local system can weight salaries more heavily than benefits. That means the insurance may cost more, but the employee is paid more. That works to the advantage of people who have insurance available through a spouse’s job or choose a cheaper alternative. 

“The block grant allows us to  provide appropriate, adequate salaries so that we can attract and retain good employees,” Curtis said. The overcompensation in the model for insurance can be shifted to salaries under the block grant funding model. 

Curtis calls teacher salaries moving to its own separate category “the worst idea ever.” 

He said it was probable that the category, which will contain money the state considers adequate for teacher compensation, will be set up so that it can’t be supplemented, meaning the district can’t kick more dollars into that category. 

“It won’t protect teacher salaries. It will do more harm than good, and it would effectively reduce the numbers of teachers we could have at the current pay rate,” he said. 

Studies have shown that teachers are one of the most important determinants of student success.  The model bases salaries on $38,000 annually, while the average salary is closer to $48,000. 

This being said, the district is preparing for a worse-case scenario requiring cuts of between $1 million and $2 million. It has outlined cuts of $1.4 million and identified income streams of $784,195 to close the potential gap.

The state is in line for millions of dollars in federal funds aimed at education which could eliminate the state shortfall. The district could stand to receive up to $4.9 million, but the state is eyeing the money for its own uses. 

There is a plan afoot to “recapture” up to 80% of those funds, or in the case of PCSD 1, $3.9 million. 

“I’m still not convinced what they are proposing to do is legal under the federal rules,” Curtis said. “It does not seem to fit within what is legally allowable. We are not attorneys, but I just don’t believe they [the state] are going to be allowed to do that.” 

After describing the wrangling going on at the Legislature, Curtis said, “It’s the Wild West down there. I don’t know where the dust is going to settle on this.”