K-12 Education Funding - Budget Hearing

Yesterday began a series of budget hearings conducted by the Governor as a preview to next year's budget. First up was the State Department of Education. While it is too early to know specifics, one thing that was clear fom the hearing is that the Governor is committed to protecting K-12 education funding. This would include funding the BEP at its current level plus improvements to cover increases in enrollment and inflationary adjustments. This improvement was estimated at $80 million. Note that this does not include any supplementary funding to continue with the phase-in of the so-called BEP 2.0 improvements. These improvements were passed the year before last with funding provided to pay for approximately 50% of the proposed improvements to ELL instruction, funding for at-risk students and restoring the state funding of instructional salaries to 75%. Last year, additional improvements were proposed, but could not be funded. In the current budgetary environment, it appears that the state will start the budget process hoping to hold K-12 funding where it is plus annual adjustments for growth and inflation. We must realize that this means cuts to other state departments and programs will have to be deeper in order to protect education funding.