Friday News Roundup: Week of December 5-9

New Mexico governor proposes $17 million in more spending to help kids read

Indiana Governor Daniels says state found untouched $300M

Florida governor calls for more education spending, less on Medicaid

University of Missouri Board of Curators talks tuition, system finances at December meeting

New Mexico governor proposes $17 million in more spending to help kids read
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez proposed this week a new state reading initiative that would direct $17 million to identifying first- through third-grade students struggling to read, and providing them with intervention services and reading coaches. The bill would also require schools to hold back third-grade students reading below grade level from fourth grade for a year. The legislation, sponsored by state senators from the Democratic and Republican parties, will be introduced in the legislative session beginning in January. Governor Martinez offered two similar proposals last year; one passed the House but was never brought to the floor in the Senate, and the other didn’t receive a vote in either chamber thanks to a controversial summer school provision, absent from the latest proposal. More here…

Indiana Governor Daniels says state found untouched $300M
According to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, the state collected $300 million more in corporate tax revenue than the state’s general spending totals account for.  Beginning in fiscal year 2007, companies were able to e-file their taxes, though few initially chose to do so. Since then, more companies began e-filing, dramatically increasing the balance of the fund. But the state never transferred the accumulated funds to the state account from which legislators allocate funding for programs and departments, meaning the tax collections were never reflected in the general fund. Officials did not discover the error until after fiscal year 2011 had ended. Over the past two years, the legislature has cut education spending by about the same amount — $300 million — and the state has established a $1.2 billion surplus. If the money is added to the surplus, rather than spent, it will activate a plan pushed by Governor Daniels and passed earlier this year to provide taxpayer refunds. More here…

Florida governor calls for more education spending, less on Medicaid
Florida Governor Rick Scott issued a fiscal year 2013 budget this week that would increase K-12 education spending by $1 billion. He followed up the proposal with a statement that he would “not sign a budget that does not significantly increase state funding for education.” The rest of the budget is less generous, including cutting 4,500 government employees, raising healthcare premiums for some state employees and legislators, and capping Medicaid reimbursement rates. The education budget increase is a shift from last year’s proposal, in which Governor Scott suggested cutting spending for education by 10 percent (the legislature instead cut spending by 8 percent, about $1.35 billion). Senate budget committees began looking at the proposed budget this week. More here…

University of Missouri Board of Curators talks tuition, system finances at December meeting
The University of Missouri Board of Curators met this week to discuss the financial state of the system. Proposals debated at the meeting included a tuition hike of about 3 percent at the Columbia, Kansas City, and St. Louis campuses, on par with inflation; an inflation-plus-2-percent tuition hike at the Missouri University of Science and Technology; and course fee increases between 10 and 33 percent. A law already in place prevents public institutions of higher education from raising tuition above the inflation rate without a waiver, but there is no such cap on student fees. The Board did not vote on any of the proposals at the meeting; votes will be held when board members meet again in February. Missouri legislators are also expected to decrease state support for higher education next year, further stretching the system’s budget. According to the board, Missouri ranks 45^th in the nation in per capita state funding for higher education, challenging the solvency of the system. The schools’ financial aid budgets in the 2013 school year will likely feel that pinch, necessitating the tuition increase. More here…