This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
With all the Legislature's hand-wringing over taking education stimulus money from the hated feds and its obsessive focus on charter schools, online classes and technical-education funding, lawmakers dropped a $700,000 ball during this year's session that forced some of the state's most vulnerable students to miss valuable classroom time.
The State Office of Education and the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind thought they had a deal with the Legislature to make up a $700,000 budget shortfall this school year so they wouldn't have to lay off or furlough teachers.
But when the dust settled at the close of the legislative session March 10, the money wasn't there and Utah's 2,000 students in the Deaf and Blind program had to miss four days of school in May, giving them a further disadvantage from their classmates who didn't miss a day.
Most of these special-needs students attend regular public schools. They have specially trained teachers and mentors at those schools who are paid by the Utah School for Deaf and Blind, which has its own budget. So when the 600 teachers had to take four furlough days because of the shortfall, the deaf and blind students stayed home.
It's particularly disruptive for those students, because they have the same class work as the other students who haven't missed any days, said Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind Superintendent Steven Noyce.
The shortfall's blame can be traced to some mix-ups between the School for the Deaf and Blind and some school districts after the State Office of Education changed the funding rules, which required larger school districts to take over much of the funding of the Deaf and Blind programs instead of the state.
Some districts disputed what they owed.
But the failure to make up the difference stems in part from the Legislature's angst about the federal EduJobs program that allocated $100 million to Utah but required the money go directly to local education associations, meaning either school districts or charter schools.
The Legislature concocted a plan in which the school districts and charters would get only $50 million of the boost, which was intended for teacher salaries. Lawmakers did that by reducing the state's contribution to education by $50 million and putting that share into other programs.
When the Deaf and Blind schools' shortfall was discovered, the plan was to reduce the state funding by another $700,000 and give that to the Deaf and Blind schools.
It was thought to be in the Education Appropriations bill. But it wasn't. School officials say when it didn't show up there, they figured it would be in the final appropriations bill. But it wasn't there either.
Rep. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, was a member of both the Education Appropriations Subcommittee and the Executive Appropriations committee, which finalized the budget. But Democrats aren't always kept in the loop, and she was surprised to learn after the fact that the $700,000 was not there.
Nobody else could fully explain its disappearance either.
Perhaps the Great Pumpkin did it.