Today, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education released its budget for the public schools.
Overall, the news for PreK-12 schools is not good.
First, we want to commend the Senate on fully funding the State Board of Education’s request to expand the More at Four Prekindergarten Program. This will ensure that at least 5,000 additional at-risk 4-year-olds are prepared to enter and succeed in the public schools.
At the same time, the Senate’s budget overall will place the burden of funding quality education on our local school districts. As diesel fuel prices push past $4 per gallon, the Senate increased the fuel budget by a net of $8 million or $0.32 per gallon. This leaves a major hole in the PreK-12 budget. If the Senate Budget passes as it is currently written, it is likely that we will need to withhold from $40-$60 million from local school districts’ budgets in order to cover fuel and student population growth needs. In addition, the Senate budget for ABCs bonuses for teachers is $36 million short of our projections for the 2007-08 school year. This level of funding likely would mean reductions to the bonuses awarded to our public school teachers.
In addition, the Senate failed to make key investments requested by the Board to increase needed services for teachers and principals in schools with low student achievement and high dropout rates as part of the state’s assistance program and the Court’s focus on low-performing high schools. We look forward to addressing these concerns as the budget process continues.