Friday News Roundup: Week of October 1-5

Clare McCann & Alex Holt
This post originally appeared on Ed Money Watch.

North Carolina state board of education may not comply with state officials’ budget request

Texas Governor Rick Perry pushing tuition freeze, $10,000 degrees

Kansas Democrats foresee $900 million in education cuts

Idaho suit takes on school fees

North Carolina state board of education may not comply with state officials’ budget request
The North Carolina State Board of Education plans to ignore a request from state budget officials that the agency design a series of budget proposals that both increase and decrease spending by 2 percent in the 2013-2014 biennium from fiscal years 2011 and 2012. A two percent change in the state’s education spending would total about $150 million. In opposition to the state budget office’s request, however, the state board of education instead plans to deliver a third option. According to education officials in the state, the past several years of cuts have made further budget cuts untenable, so the education budget the board passes this fall will instead represent a third option. Still, the chairman of the state board of education said it may submit all three options to the state office in the interest of fulfilling its legal obligations. More here…

Texas Governor Rick Perry pushing tuition freeze, $10,000 degrees
Governor Rick Perry of Texas repeated his call for a four-year tuition freeze for incoming freshman at the state’s colleges and universities. He is also pushing for a higher education financing reform that would link 10 percent of a school’s state funding to measures of student outcomes like graduation rates, as well as an effort to persuade schools to offer $10,000 degrees for students. Two University of Texas campuses, Dallas and El Paso, already offer a four-year tuition freeze to freshmen, and nine schools already offer or are planning to provide a $10,000 degree option. The higher education measures come amid a national push to lower college costs and decrease the growing debt burden students take on. However, the state legislature cut almost $1 billion from state postsecondary institutions in fiscal year 2011, a challenge to colleges that want to cut costs for students despite the state budget cuts. More here…

Kansas Democrats foresee $900 million in education cuts
Leading Democrats in Kansas say that Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s tax cuts passed last session will lead to nearly $900 million in cuts to state K-12 and higher education spending over the next five years if the cuts are distributed across the budget proportionally. Governor Brownback says that the projections, which were prepared by the nonpartisan Legislative Research Department, are wrong. Instead, he says that the tax cuts will spur economic growth that will lead to a higher tax revenue. Democrats are also criticizing the governor for stacking a “School Efficiency Task Force” with accountants and business leaders but no educators, saying it’s designed to provide cover for cutting education spending. More here…

Idaho suit takes on school fees
A class-action lawsuit filed this week in an Idaho District Court charges that the state’s public K-12 schools are in violation of the Idaho constitution because they are charging registration fees to enroll in the school. The suit was filed by Russ Joki, a former school district superintendent, whose granddaughters were charged $45 each for kindergarten registration and whose grandson was charged $85 to enroll in a public high school. The suit rests on a 1970 Idaho Supreme Court case in which a $12.50 textbook fee and a $25 fee to receive transcripts were deemed unconstitutional. According to the attorney who filed the lawsuit, the court is being asked to refund one year of fees to parents in the state – a cost of more than $2 million to the state. The lawsuit is being filed during an ongoing debate over education reforms that Idaho voters will approve or reject in the November elections, as well as three consecutive years of budget cuts. More here…