WASHINGTON (AP) -- The struggle over surging health care costs is hitting the classroom as schools increasingly cut teachers to textbooks to pay for insurance.

When finance director Dave Jones arrived at the Kodiak Island Borough School District in Alaska seven years ago, the school system spent about $1 million on medical insurance for workers. That cost is up to $3 million and could rise an additional $360,000 this year, Jones said.

With a budget deficit looming, Jones said his district could face a repeat of a few years ago, when paying for insurance meant reducing crossing guards, teaching jobs, classroom supplies and band and swimming programs.

"It's a bad cycle, it's a terrible cycle, and there are no simple answers," Jones said. "But if you're in the school industry business, it's not a new story."

It is new, however, to many Americans, who typically view health insurance in terms of their family's expenses and medical care -- not as an obstacle to helping children succeed.

Covering medical insurance has led to cuts in building maintenance, classroom aides, teacher training and technology, according to an informal survey by the Association of School Business Officials International.

School business managers say they try to spare the classroom but often cannot because options for raising money are limited, school budgets are dominated by personnel costs and insurance soars like no other expense.

More than nine out of 10 of those officials surveyed said school health insurance is a bigger problem now than ever; more than half said these costs have jumped at least 20 percent in three years.

Balancing budgets
In the Alpine School District in northern Utah, officials have handled double-digit insurance increases in three ways: reducing health coverage, asking employees to pay more and just "sucking it up and paying for it," said business administrator Rob Smith. Direct cuts in services to students remain a possibility.

"Teachers just want to worry about teaching kids," Smith said. "But they're being forced to look at this a little more intently than they have in the past."

Health care costs are the main reason why School District 54 in Schaumburg, Illinois, has frozen spending on teaching supplies and phased in plans to get students laptop computers, said assistant superintendent Mohsin Dada.

His district has balanced its budget without dipping into savings, he said, but others in Illinois have tapped reserves to pay for insurance.

Monthly insurance premiums for employers rose almost 14 percent between 2002 and 2003, the third straight year of double-digit increases, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Rapid inflation and insurers' emphasis on profits drove the high rate, the foundation said.

School districts have some controls over costs, said Jewell Gould, research director for the American Federation of Teachers. The union is helping school districts conduct audits of their health and prescription drug plans. The intent is to save money, maintain quality health care for workers and avoid cuts in the classroom.

Competing expenses
School business officers say they have tried several ways to rein in costs, some with success, but cutting teachers' benefits is not a popular option. It is politically difficult in districts with union representation and it does not help districts retain or recruit highly qualified teachers.

Many finance officers say escalating insurance costs have hurt schools' ability to put in place the new federal education law, which demands yearly progress among all students.

Education Secretary Rod Paige, a former school superintendent, said he empathizes with school leaders. But he said daily costs such as health insurance should not get entangled in the money debate over the federal law.

The law comes with enough money to cover what it requires, Paige said. But many who oversee school budgets put it a different way, saying that all of their expenses compete against each other.

"The money has to come from somewhere. It comes from staffing, from equipment, from supplies," said Richard Dupuis, business manager at the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School in Massachusetts. "The increase in health insurance costs reduces our ability to appropriately educate our students. There's no question about it."