BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A $3.5 billion formula to pay for Louisiana’s public schools next year vaulted over its first legislative hurdle Thursday, getting passage from the senators who rejected a previous version.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education rewrote the 2014-15 school financing plan after the Senate Education Committee refused to pass it. The revamp won the committee’s approval in a 5-1 vote.
The committee’s chairman, Republican Sen. Conrad Appel of Metairie, had objected to BESE’s inclusion of an automatic growth factor that could lock the Legislature into boosting the per-student payment by 2.75 percent annually in later years.
In the rewrite, BESE stripped the language calling for the inflationary increase.
“That concern has been addressed,” Superintendent of Education John White said.
The education board also made changes to lessen criticism from local school leaders, and leaders of both the school districts and the superintendents spoke in favor of the latest version of the financing formula.
“We appreciate the outreach that has happened to all the constituencies by the (education) department,” said Patrice Pujol, superintendent of Ascension Parish schools.
The formula heads next to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration, before moving to the full Senate for debate.
Lawmakers can approve or reject the formula submitted by BESE, but cannot change it. If the board and lawmakers cannot agree on a new formula, the state would continue using the current financing structure to pay for public schools next year.
Teacher union leaders said the reworked formula addresses many of their concerns, but they didn’t offer support.
Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said the proposal hasn’t reached the point of fair and equitable funding for education. He said the 2.75 percent inflationary increase was a driver to encourage talk about appropriate funding levels for education in a state with ongoing budget problems.
“The needs of the state are great. The priorities are less clear,” Monaghan said.
The financing formula moving to the Senate floor for consideration would increase spending by about $150 million.
Of the increases, $70 million of that would simply roll into the permanent formula an increase that lawmakers gave to school districts this year. Another $40 million is tied to increased student enrollment. And $20 million was required to address local tax changes.
Only about $15 million of the increased funding would expand spending on programs, including for career education courses and special education.
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Online:
Senate Concurrent Resolution 55 can be found at www.legis.la.gov
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