Holden seeks grass-roots effort to lobby for school funding

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Bob Holden urged school board members from across the state Tuesday to lobby lawmakers repeatedly and aggressively to back his proposed funding increase for public schools.

Holden wants to supply the full $220 million increase requested for the basic formula that distributes money to elementary and secondary schools. To do so, he is depending largely on new tax revenues from casinos.

To be successful, Holden envisions a grass-roots effort led by local school officials who have influence with their hometown lawmakers.

"I'm going to need you to work very, very hard to ensure we have the full funding of $220 million in the school foundation formula," Holden told more than 200 school board members in Jefferson City for an annual conference.

"I need you to be the champion out there to help get it done, because you're going to be competing with a lot of interests," Holden said.

$19 billion budget

Holden's proposed $19 billion budget is the first in about 20 years to be smaller than the previous year's appropriation.

To remain balanced, his budget proposal depends not only on new gambling taxes for education, but also on $480 million in cuts and the unprecedented use of $135 million from the state's savings account to fund government services.

Some senior senators have suggested that the state may not need -- or be able to afford -- to fund the entire increase requested for public schools.

But school board members said they would have to make cuts if less than the full request were approved.

"We would definitely be deficit spending, and we're just barely breaking even now," said Charles Allard, a school board member in Polo, which has 389 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. "We would probably have to cut something."

Allard, for one, said he has never been much for lobbying but might consider talking to local lawmakers this year because of Holden's request.

Willard School Board member David Hernden said he didn't have time to follow through with Holden's request. But perhaps others will, he said.

"Any time you take away money from schools, you take it away from kids," Hernden said.

Teacher raises in doubt

Some school districts depend heavily on state funding, while others draw most of their money from local property taxes.

Regardless, salaries for teachers and staff typically comprise about 80 percent of a school district's budget, said Brent Ghan, a spokesman for the Missouri School Boards Association.

If schools don't receive the full increase as proposed, some teachers may not get pay raises and some educational programs may be eliminated, he said.

In some districts, even a small reduction in the state funding formula could have a significant impact, Ghan said.

Holden also touted his school accountability plan, which could force teachers and principals to undergo more training in order to receive pay raises if they work in schools that are falling short of educational standards.