We are tuning up for the 2011 Regular Legislative Session. The buzz was emanating from last week’s Joint Legislative Interim Budget Hearings.

The Education Trust Fund, which funds public education in Alabama, has been massively reduced by $1.5 billion over the last several years. We are looking at cutting the next education budget by some $500 million after we have already cut everything that could be cut. The buzz tells us that trouble lurks ahead.

The Alabama fiscal situation is improving – slowly. We had 11 straight months of improvements in sales taxes which provide a sizable portion of the revenues for the education budget. That’s encouraging

How do we cut $500 million more from the education budget without setting education way back? For four-year colleges and universities, which have few line items, we just reduce the amount and let them worry about specific allocations.

However, K-12 is an altogether different animal: we must make stark choices. How do we risk setting education back when Alabama has just recently moved from the bottom rung (49th) on the education ladder to the middle of the pact (25th)? If we slide back, the momentum toward excellence may take years to rebuild.

The other proposal is to reduce school days for teachers and support personnel.

Teachers have seven professional development days and support personnel have two.

Students are not in school during those days. Each day less for teachers and support personnel provides $18 million for the looming deficits. Each teacher day reduced provides $13 million.

I have run out of space but I must say the General Fund budget is worse off than the education. Medicaid alone needs $355 million to maintain current levels of health care.

The Department of Corrections needs $72 million to avoid releasing thousands of prisoners.

To maintain current levels of Stateservice requires $700 million.

It’s tough to choose between reducing health care for our poor and releasing prisoners on one hand and cutting other needed governmental services on the other hand.

The buzz we hear now will become a roar as we draw closer to decision time.