The state Legislature will not convene until January, but a grassroots education funding organization is already looking at ways to make sure that it lives up to its responsibilities when it comes to funding public schools.

Over time, more and more of the responsibility for funding public schools has been placed on local taxpayers in the form of mill levies, said Mark Lambrecht, executive director of the Montana Quality Education Coalition.  That trend is expected to continue, but his organization is traveling from town to town gathering concerns.  With a united, focused voice, educators have more of a chance of influencing legislation.  Members of the organization come from a broad range of organizations and districts, giving it more clout than if just one group was a member, he said.

The growing burden on local tax payers to support their school districts with mill levies is an issue experienced in Havre.

"People have just about paid their share of mill levies," Havre Public Schools trustee Norm Proctor said about the funding issues in the Havre district.

Local and state aid numbers grow c l o s e r e v e r y y e a r, I n t e r i m Superintendent Andy Carlson said.

"We've had great community support.

That's been evident for years," he said.

The organization is gathering input from state school districts to compile concerns and also to talk about a piece of legislation that the organization is drafting for school funding, and Lambrecht visited Havre Tuesday.

Several concerns have been raised in other districts, and Carlson said that Havre has many of the same or similar ones.

Concerns include: increasing the quality educator payment as an incentive for good teachers to remain with districts; engaging in economic development, particularly with renewable Energy and oil and gas to increase tax dollars; basing the budget on a per-teacher basis instead of on a per-student basis to eliminate some of the undulations in funding; creating a state sales tax, reducing paperwork required by the Office of Public Instruction; changeing insurance to make it more affordable; creating a four-day school week; and increasing the individual contribution to retirement funds.

Another concern raised is with annexation and consolidation, Lambrecht said, calling it a "lightening-rod issue."

A bill is being drafted that would move students in schools with 25 or fewer attendees into larger districts.

"The one message that I've heard as I've been going around the state is the small schools and the small towns, that's the identity and the lifeblood in those schools," he said.

The content ious bi l l i s receiving both support and opposition, he said, adding that it could provide a good platform to debate the issue further and take into account different factors instead of making a blanket limit of 25 students.

Spending of flex accounts also is an issue that districts have discussed wi th him, Lambrecht said.

Currently, approximately $39 million exists in flex accounts across the state and the state is considering requiring that that money be used to balance the overall budget.

Some districts are spending that money quickly to make sure that it is used in the district it was collected for, he said.

But doing that could cause problems, Proctor said, adding that those funds are often used for things such as having to unexpectedly replace boilers.

Schools don't have credit cards that can be used for purchases like that, he said, and so the flex accounts play an important part in the budget.

Another way to help with funding is to ensure that $85 million in a bonus bid on development of the Otter Creek coal tracks is spent exclusively for education.

Five million dollars of that is already in a education reserve fund, but that leaves $80 million for state organizations to try to secure.

The goal of the legislation, Lambrecht said, is to circumvent the guarantee account that the funding will go to first and send it directly to an education account.

It should specifically be stated the an equal amount of money can not be taken out of the guarantee account that would be spent on education, Proctor suggested.

The legislation would need to receive a super majority vote, Lambrecht said, to avoid a veto by the governor.

"Because this certainly addresses his discretionary spending authority.  And I don't think any governor would be in favor of that," he said.

"But this is one way that we can really make some headway on making sure that the state meets its commitment in terms of funding public education," he added.

Lambrecht said that MQEC will be speaking with the Office of Public Instruction and that support from OPI could go a long way in gaining other support for the legislation.

"That would be significant," he said.