House sends out several important education bills

Lots of floor action today, including several key education-related bills.

One of the biggies is Rep. Pat Sullivan's HB 2776, a follow-up to last year’s HB 2261, the bill that laid out a ten-year plan for transforming the state’s K-12 funding system. Following several months of discussion by work groups, Sullivan pulled some of their recommendations into HB 2776 which:

• Establishes a new prototypical school funding model that will simplify the budgeting process and increase transparency.
• Requires a phase-in of smaller classes of 15 students in kindergarten through 3rd grade by 2017-18 school year.
• Requires increased funding for maintenance and operation costs, costs the state currently only provides about half the funding for.
• Implements a new pupil transportation funding method.
• Accelerates the workgroups focused on local levy and teacher compensation issues.

The House also approved two bills aimed at boosting school districts’ ability to collect local, voter-approved funding. Most districts can use levies for no more than 24 percent of their budgets. Last year the Legislature suspended funding for I-728 and I-732, voter-approved initiatives for class size reduction and teacher cost-of-living increases. The reduced funding meant school districts were collecting less levy money.

HB 2893, also sponsored by Sullivan, and HB 2670 sponsored by State Rep. Kathy Haigh, allow school districts to calculate their levies as though that funding were still in place. HB 2893 also provides a temporary offset to the cuts made by the state last year by allowing a temporary raise in the levy lid by four percent along with increased funding for levy equalization for property-poor districts.

There's still more to come this evening. Stay tuned!