Polls in all four Kootenai County districts are open from 8 am until 8 pm.
Voters in a good many Idaho school districts will decide Tuesday if they're willing to make up the difference between state funding and the actual costs of running public schools. Using local tax dollars to fill gaps in state funding began accelerating about a decade ago in Idaho, with the biggest jump coming in 2008, after state lawmakers linked education money to sales and income taxes, rather than property taxes.
The recession sharply slashed sales and income taxes, which meant that the state education budget was cut by about $128-million. This year, school district supplemental levies are up to $181-million, from only $79-million just ten years ago.
In Kootenai County Tuesday, four districts are asking for two-year levies. The Coeur d'Alene district wants $30-million - about $2-million more than the expiring levy- to pay about 20 percent of the district's operating expenses. The additional money will be used to hire more teachers, and to buy new classroom materials and textbooks.
In Post Falls, the bond comes to just over $9-million for the next two years. Kootenai Joint School District voters face a one-point-eight million dollar levy, and in the Plummer-Worley district, the amount is $1.2 million.
