Educators urging passage of Amendment One to stave off cuts

Educators say Alabamians can prevent funding cuts and teacher layoffs by voting for an amendment that would allow schools to tap a state rainy day fund.

On the ballot in November is a constitutional amendment that, if proration is declared, would allow the state’s schools to borrow money from about $3 billion in oil and gas royalties the state holds in trust. Amendment One would allow the schools to borrow about $435 million from the trust fund.

State education officials say the amendment is necessary because tax revenues have fallen sharply and proration, an across-the-board emergency cut in government funding, is all but a certainty.

Alabama has made strides in education in recent years. The state’s fourth graders led the nation in standardized reading scores, Alabama fourth and eighth graders improved at twice the national average in math last year and an increasing number of state schools are meeting federal No Child Left Behind Act goals.

Much of the credit for this success is being given to programs like the Alabama Reading Initiative and the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative. These programs could be cut, and all of the progress the state has made wiped away if proration is declared and education funding reduced.

“Instability is not good,” said Michael Sibley, an Alabama Department of Education spokesman. “You don’t want teachers in a position where they have to worry if they have a job next year.”

In Dothan, the city school system could be forced to cut about $1.5 million from its budget if proration is declared and the system can’t draw on state rainy day funds.

Dothan City School Superintendent Sam Nichols said Amendment One would create a safety net for schools, but with a cost because the funds would have to be paid back. This means future revenue growth that could be applied to new programs would be used to refund the trust fund.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Nichols said. “You’re danged if you do and danged if you don’t.”