School funding is not supplemental

Ask any school board member from one of Idaho’s 115 school districts what the number one challenge for education in Idaho is and they will say funding. School boards spend more time trying to support the gap between what the state provides and their budget than any other item.

The only tool Idaho Code provides a local district to fill this unsupported gap is the local voter approved property tax levy. Lake Pend Oreille School District has enjoyed the support of patrons and passed “supplemental tax levies” every other year for 20 years. In 20 years, the gap in LPOSD has risen $1.25 million to almost 13 million per year. The gap is no longer supplemental. It has become essential. It represents over one third the cost of educating our children.

If one of these levies would fail, the results would be catastrophic. Hundreds of teachers would be laid off. Multiple rural schools would close. There would be no extracurricular activities, few elective classes, and no kindergarten. Class size would explode. Career technical and upper level academics would have to be curtailed.

The Nov. 5 LPOSD levy is not a new levy, it extends an existing two-year levy. It does not raise taxes. It maintains current tax levels. What the Nov 5. vote does is stabilize the local property tax levy and school funding by not requiring the district to rerun the levy every other year.

GARY SUPPIGER

Cocolalla

Lake Pend Oreille School District trustee