Citing concerns about potential across-the-board cuts for federal education funding, the School District 6 board of trustees approved a resolution last week urging Congress and the Obama administration to amend the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Signed into law by President Obama on Aug. 2, 2011, the act includes an automatic budget “sequestration” measure as one way to address the federal debt-ceiling crisis Congress faced at the time.

According to the resolution passed by the Columbia Falls school board on Jan. 14, federal programs could see about $1.2 trillion in across-the-board budget cuts, including an 8.2 percent or more reduction in education funding.

School District 6’s share of the $4 billion potentially lost to federal education funding could be about $180,000, the board says. But with student enrollment in Columbia Falls continuing to decline, the school district is already facing a $418,397 budget deficit for the next fiscal year, based on Montana’s current school-funding formula and recent union contracts.

“Given the budget cuts and adjustments our local community has made in recent years, there is simply very little left to cut,” school superintendent Michael Nicosia said. “Any further cuts in education funding will adversely affect the quality of our education programs.”

Three school funding fixes are being discussed in Helena. The Office of Public Instruction is calling for a 0.89 percent inflationary increase to the current funding formula, based on the consumer price index and a statutory mandate that came about after School District 6 was the lead plaintiff in a successful 2002 school funding lawsuit. Gov. Steve Bullock’s school funding proposal includes OPI’s inflationary increase and an increase based on the number of certified educators.

A bill carried by Sen. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, which encompasses the recommendations of the K-12 Vision Group, is intended to boost funding and flexibility for innovation, improved academic achievement and inflationary costs while providing tax relief for local property owners. The source of money behind his bill would be tax revenue from oil and gas production.

Supporters of the Jones bill note that local property taxes for general funds of schools in Montana increased from $75 million in 1991 to $286 million today, while oil and gas tax revenue increased from $43.7 million in 2000 to $215.1 million in 2011.