The House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid released their budget proposals in mid-April.  Both proposals have now passed their respective chambers and are under consideration by the other chamber.

The Senate budget, Senate Bill 860, followed many of the Governor’s recommendations, including the weighted formulas. Unfortunately, the House budget, House Bill 5630, did not include the weighted formula, despite its solid support throughout the education community and beyond. MASB, along with MASA and MASSP, released a statement after both budget proposals were released to the public.

While there were other significant differences between the proposals, both the House and Senate proposed a 2.5% foundation allowance increase to $10,300, the same as the Governor’s recommendation. The Senate also allows any district to use the actual pupil count from the current fiscal year or a three-year average count to determine their total number of pupils for funding purposes.  This replaces the declining enrollment line-item in its budget. 

The House moved quickly this week. On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee rolled together the school aid, community college and university budgets into a “school bus” budget bill. The committee approved it, and the House passed it that night by a vote of 56-49. It will now go to the Senate.

On the Senate side, the Senate Appropriations Committee met on Thursday and approved the budget. It is now before the full Senate for expected passage next week. We are encouraged by the action this week that a budget could easily be done by the end of June.  The next Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference is May 15, and this will give the Legislature the final numbers to base budgets on.

We break down the budget by certain sections on our advocacy site and will continually update it as the budget moves through the process.