Budget ax falls today on Perdue's education initiatives

Brandon Larrabee, Morris News Service

August 14, 2008

The budget ax would fall on several of Gov. Sonny Perdue's signature education initiatives under proposed cuts set to be approved by the state Board of Education today.

Under the spending plan presented to the board Wednesday, a teacher mentoring program backed by Perdue would be allowed to expire; some graduation coaches first proposed by the governor would be eliminated; and a program giving teachers $100 gift cards to spend on schools supplies would be cut in half.

Department of Education officials, though, said they don't believe the cuts will seriously hamper the state's efforts to improve student achievement and drive down the state's lagging graduation rate.

"We were very strategic with what we looked at and ... what we were willing to put up for reduction," Superintendent Kathy Cox told the board.

The department crafted the plan in response to Perdue's order to come up with budget cuts totaling 6, 8 and 10 percent for his office and the General Assembly to consider. One set of cuts, for the spending year that ends June 30, will require mostly reductions in travel and supply budgets because.

But deeper cuts for the fiscal year that begins the next day could trigger the cuts to the coaching and gift-card programs.

The expiration of the teacher mentoring program isn't a surprise; a recent audit found the first two years of the initiative were marred by fraud, waste and rampant nepotism. The attorney general has ordered an investigation of the early days of the program, which was initially run by a regional education agency in Tennille, Ga., but has since been taken over by Cox's department.

"It really has turned out not to be a program that is meeting its legislative intent," Cox said.

The graduation coach program would be cut by removing some of the coaching positions currently in middle schools feeding into high schools that are already doing relatively well with their graduation rates. Those cuts would kick in if Perdue and lawmakers cut the budget by 8 or 10 percent, and would require a change in state law.

A spokesman for Perdue declined to comment specifically on the graduation coach reduction, noting it was early in the budget process, but he said the governor still believes in the program.

"There are a lot of those programs out there that we're going to have to look at and see what we can afford," he said.

The size of the teacher gift cards would be reduced from $100 to $50.

Board member Peggy Nielson, though, questioned whether the state should limit the number of tests it administers to students instead of cutting programs more directly related to classroom instruction. That change would also require legislative approval.

"Testing is one of the highest-ticket items we have," Nielson said.

But Cox strongly disagreed with the idea of getting rid of some tests, saying it helps the state ensure that students are learning what they should.

"It sounds like we're talking about retreating on accountability, and I'm about to have a stroke over here," she said.

The board plan also formally ratifies Perdue's order to slice aid to local school districts by 2 percent in the current fiscal year and 3 percent next year. That comes a day after a judge said a lawsuit filed by 50 school districts and claiming the state doesn't spend enough on education can go forward.

Brantley said the cut wouldn't weaken the state's case because the districts can't prove that education would be improved by more spending.

"The Governor has proposed a plan that reduces spending in education much less than every other agency and program," Brantley said in an e-mail. "While his preference was to hold education harmless, there is just simply no other way to achieve the spending reductions that are necessary."

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