By Ronnie Lynn
The Salt Lake Tribune

    A legislative subcommittee refused Monday to swallow the $393 million tab state school officials say it will cost to accomplish competency-based education and other reforms mandated by new state and federal laws.
    Administrators with the state Office of Education told the Public Education Appropriation Subcommittee that they could devote $190 million of existing education funding to help all students meet higher standards of the competency-based system mandated under this year's sweeping Senate Bill 154 and the equally far-reaching federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
    But some subcommittee members flatly disputed that another $150 million in new annual funding and $53 million in one-time money is necessary to expand classroom testing, teacher training and services for struggling students.
    "We already have good things going on," said Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper. "There are lots of grass-roots reports [of successful programs] that would shrink the dollars here."
    The subcommittee will meet its Friday deadline -- as mandated by SB154 -- for submitting an initial cost analysis to Gov. Mike Leavitt without endorsing the state office's cost projections.
    Instead, the report will acknowledge the subcommittee received the projections and note that the state office's proposals for complying with SB154 could require another $202 million in state funding.
    It also will outline possible strategies for dealing with the funding requirements, including raising income or property taxes, shifting money from other state budgets, re-prioritizing the existing public education budget and eliminating the need for the new programs by repealing SB154 altogether.
    "SB154 is on track and you need to come up to the plate," Rep. Judy Ann Buffmire, D-Millcreek, told her colleagues on the subcommittee. "This is why some of us didn't vote for SB154. You can't vote things in and not follow through."
    The legislation requires the state Board of Education increase graduation requirements, emphasize core classes and shift to a system in which students advance through school based on their competencies rather than time spent in a class.
    The board is proposing that middle and high school students pass year-end standardized tests and earn at least a C to earn a unit of credit for each core class. Statewide, more than 80,000 students are reading below grade level and need additional help, state Superintendent Steve
   Laing said.
    "I don't think members of the subcommittee have a good appreciation of what it's going to cost," he said. "Without sufficient funding, a reform effort of this size isn't possible."
    Lawmakers missed their opportunity to pull off a tax increase for public education this year, said Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan. The Senate narrowly approved a $97 million hike to pay for the reforms of SB154, but the plan died after Leavitt said he would veto any proposal for a tax hike.
    Similar propositions will be tougher to pass during the 2004 general session because many of the 90 lawmakers up for re-election the following November won't be willing to take such a political risk, Hillyard said.
    "If a tax increase is necessary, and I'm not convinced that it is, it needs to be a bipartisan effort," Hillyard said. "Both parties need to step up, and the governor needs to step up if we're going to do a tax increase."
    Such a unified front might be even more unlikely with Monday's announcement of Leavitt's possible departure to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
    Subcommittee members squabbled over what to include in their report and whether to even support the state office's recommendations for helping students achieve the higher standards required under SB154.
    The recommendations focus on more frequent classroom tests to track individual students' progress, additional teacher training and extra services for students performing below grade level:
    * $95 million for computers and an online classroom testing system that would give teachers immediate feedback on students' understanding of what they are learning.
    * $11 million to modify existing tests so that they report how much a student has gained during the school year.
    * $75 million to train teachers and aides in how to measure students' competencies.
    * $190 million for tutoring, literacy specialists, summer school and other programs and services to bring struggling students up to grade level.
    SB154 imposed an Aug. 15 deadline for the subcommittee so that its report could be considered during a series of regional education summits to be hosted by the governor next month. The summits are intended to refine the state Board of Education's Performance Plus plan.
    rlynn@sltrib.com