Education

State News Roundup

May 18, 1983 3 min read
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The Republican-controlled Idaho legislature refused to increase education funding last week during a special session called by Gov. John V. Evans.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the same education budget that they had passed during the regular session, which adjourned in April.

Governor Evans, a Democrat, who wanted more money appropriated for education, had vetoed the legislature’s education budget.

Governor Evans wanted $13.2 million in additional 1984 allocations for public schools, higher education, agricultural research, and vocational schools.

The legislature appropriated $215 million for public education, $70 million for higher education, $8.5 million for agricultural research, and $13.4 million for vocational schools.

The Governor will not call another special session, a spokesman said.

A tax-limitation measure will be on the Florida general-election bal-lot in November, 1984.

It would limit annual increases in state and local revenues to two-thirds of the increase in the inflation rate and hold down increases in property-tax revenues to 5 percent or the two-thirds limit, whichever is lower.

The measure would cost the state $1.2 billion in the first year, and the revenue loss would mean large cuts for education programs, according to Karen Walby, an economist for Gov. Bob Graham.

“Starting with 1980-81 receipts as a base, each succeeding year’s maximum receipts would be calculated as the previous year’s base plus growth based on a two-thirds rise in the consumer-price index for the last calendar year,” Ms. Walby said.

Under the tax-limitation measure, estimated state revenues from would be cut from $6.4 billion to $5.2 billion in 1984-85, she said.

The Governor is not opposed to tax-limitation measures as long as they allow for economic and population growth, Ms. Walby said. Florida is expecting 1.5 million more inhabitants by 1985.

Budget cuts may eliminate one program area and nine teacher positions at Boston University’s School of Education.

The school’s dean, Paul B. War-ren, has recommended to the university president that the program in humanistic education and human services and its staff be eliminated next fall. Besides being costly, the program is also “ill-defined,” Mr. Warren said. The school’s other three programs, in educational leadership, counseling, and special education, would remain intact.

Under the collective-bargaining contract, the university can cut positions for academic reasons, but it must try to find other jobs for those teachers within the university system. Five tenured faculty positions are among the nine that would be terminated if the recommendation is approved.

A faculty review committee is now considering the recommendation and will report in July, Mr. Warren said.

The joint education committee of the Massachusetts General Assembly has approved a measure that sanctions voluntary fingerprinting of schoolchildren.

The measure calls for the departments of education and public safety to draft guidelines for a fingerprinting program.

Several communities in the state have begun fingeprinting students as a means of aiding police in identifying children who are reported missing.

Prior to the committee’s endorsement of the measure, Commissioner of Education John H. Lawson sent a letter opposing such legislation on the grounds that existing state regu-lations already permit school districts to conduct fingerprinting programs. Terry Zoulas, spokesman for the department of education, said that the commissioner believes that the legislation is unnecessary because schools already have been advised on appropriate fingerprinting procedures.

The measure must now be approved by the full legislature.

A version of this article appeared in the May 18, 1983 edition of Education Week as State News Roundup

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