School Funding Increase Awaits House Action

The Senate Education Committee, meeting for what it hoped was the final time this session Monday, gave what amounts to a go-ahead for a bill that would increase per pupil school funding by two percent in each of the next two years.

House Bill 1774 by Rep. James McLean (D-Batesville) has not yet passed the House, which adjourned Monday after voting down the “private option” health care expansion plan.

But the Senate Education Committee’s chairman, Sen. Johnny Key (R-Mountain Home) told committee members that he would prefer they not meet again. Instead, he will ask them to sign that bill out of committee. If a majority of the committee’s nine senators sign off after it passes the House, that would have the same effect as if it had passed in a regular meeting.

The school funding bill increases general school funding by 1.8 percent per pupil each of the next two years. Another .2 percent increase will cover the minimum amount that school districts will provide for school employee health insurance policies. The Legislature mandated that amount to be increased this session.

That two percent rise will increase per pupil state funding to districts from $6,267 in 2012-13 to $6,393 this upcoming school year and to $6,521 in 2014-15.

Meanwhile, funding will increase by 1.8 percent in other “categorical” areas – funding for at-risk students in an alternative learning environment; for English language learners; and for educator professional development.

The one category that will not see a percentage increase is funding provided schools as a result of the National School Lunch Act. But that could change after the 2014 fiscal session.

The state allocates federal NSLA dollars based on the number of students receiving free and reduced lunch prices because of their family incomes. Research presented to the House and Senate Education committees this session indicated that the funding is being spent in a wide variety of ways that have not resulted in student achievement gains.

The current state-based formula uses a tiered approach where per pupil funding differs based on whether a district has 90 percent qualifying students, 70 percent, or less than 70 percent.

That can result in a significant difference in funding based on as few as one qualifying student. A district with exactly 70 percent qualifying students received $1,033 in NSLA funds per student in the 2012-13 school year. With one less qualifying student, it would have received $517 per student.

Earlier this session, Key presented Senate Bill 811, which would have “smoothed” those differences and given more weight to students qualifying for free lunches than those qualifying for reduced prices. However, it ran into opposition when the model would have resulted in 73 percent of school districts losing funding.

Under House Bill 1774, the Department of Education, the Bureau of Legislative Research, and the Senate and House Education Committees will re-evaluate the state’s NSLA funding formula prior to the Legislature’s 2014 fiscal session.

The goals are to create a list of evidence-based programs for which districts may spend NSLA money and to provide funding on a sliding scale with more weight given to students qualifying for free meals than for those qualifying for reduced prices.