Overall, it's a very good budget, especially looking at his proposal for teacher recruitment and retention.

363

The list is ludicrous. I think the intelligent voter would look at this and say this is so far off, it's incredible.

229

That's the biggest issue. Various districts have different definitions of moral turpitude.

193

Whether you agree or disagree with his policies, he has provided a lot of emphasis on public schools. Engaging the public in the school debate ... creates a better atmosphere.

184

Overall, it's a very good budget. It's a 6 percent to 7 percent increase. Considering what other states are doing, it's substantial.

183

We met with Senate and House leaders, and they felt they could cure it during the session. I'm very confident [schools] will be able to use co-teaching.

178

We would like to see some of that money spent as pay-as-you-go for capital expenditures. We are so far behind both in our growth for capital outlay and meeting class size that we've got to come up with some substantial dollars in this year, and that would be one way to do it.

147

We have tremendous concerns in three areas: transportation, because of rising fuel costs; utilities, because of rising fuel costs; and increases in health care costs. We could have given teachers a 7 percent pay raise instead of taking those things away. We could have hired more of those teachers at a higher salary.

139

We think we're going to get it fixed legislatively. It has always been our policy that we'd rather legislate than litigate.

106