The Department of Education will not be able to develop the statewide testing program within the next three years if the proposed $350,000-a-year cut to that department's budget becomes reality, according to Education Commissioner Roger Breed.

The state Board of Education is committed to a quality statewide testing program, and that will cost about $5 million a year for development, Breed told the Legislature's Appropriations Committee Friday afternoon.

And there will be other ramifications under the governor's proposed budget cuts, Breed said.

The Department of Education will also have to renegotiate its contract for operation of the school for blind and visually impaired children in Nebraska City; adults with disabilities will wait longer to see a vocational rehabilitation counselor and the start of vocational services; and local schools will have to use more of their money for services to deaf and hearing-impaired students.

The state may cut its funding to local schools, but the schools can't cut services to students who are deaf or hard of hearing because this is a continuing federal mandate, Breed said.

Proposed cuts in early education grants would mean more than 90 children at risk of failing in school would not be able to attend local prechool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, said Jen Hernandez with the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. She asked senators to "rethink this particular proposed reduction.

"We are, and we have to be, a part of the solution," Breed told the Legislature's Education Committee Friday afternoon. But the cuts proposed by Gov. Dave Heineman will mean a reduction in services the agency can provide, he said.

Breed's comments came at the end of two days of budget hearings, during which code agencies controlled by the governor simply said they could live with the cuts, but many independent agencies pointed out very specific problems created by the proposed cuts, generally 2.5 percent this year and 5 percent next fiscal year.

State Historical Society Director Michael Smith said his agency can live with the across-the-board cuts, but will likely have to lay off as many as five positions and reduce hours of service at its sites under the deeper cuts the governor has proposed.

The budget hearings for individual agencies continue Monday and Tuesday. A hearing on the plan for cutting state aid to education is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday before the Education Committee.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.