Friday News Roundup: Week of February 21-25

At Ed Money Watch, we discuss and analyze major issues affecting education funding. In our Friday News Roundup, we try to highlight interesting stories that might otherwise get overlooked. These stories emphasize how federal and state policy changes can affect local schools and districts.

Kansas Legislature Struggles to Resolve Special Education Funding Issue

Idaho Passes Two Bills Reforming Teacher Pay

Georgia House Will Consider Cuts to HOPE Scholarship

Kansas Legislature Struggles to Resolve Special Education Funding Issue
Kansas state legislators this week debated two plans to satisfy federal requirements to maintain state special education funding. Kansas used funds from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to prop up state funding for special education in recent years, but the federal government recently warned the state that they are currently failing to comply with the law’s maintenance of effort requirement and could lose federal funding for special education. This requirement states that states must ensure that current year funding for special education is not less than 90 percent of the funding level provided two fiscal years earlier. To comply with the law, Kansas must boost its spending on special education in the current fiscal year 2011 by more than $26 million. The state House of Representatives has proposed a plan that would delay a payment to the state’s teacher pension fund in the current fiscal year. After the start of fiscal year 2012, the plan would replace the pension payment with funds shifted from the state’s base aid to schools, reducing per pupil funding by $40 in fiscal year 2012. The state Senate proposed a plan that would divert the funds from the teacher pension fund, replacing them with cash reserves in fiscal year 2012 and leaving base aid intact. More here…

Idaho Passes Two Bills Reforming Teacher Pay
The Idaho state Senate this week approved two bills that would change the way teachers are compensated. The first bill would eliminate tenure for new teachers and restrict collective bargaining. Instead of tenure, teachers would be offered one- to two-year contracts following an initial probationary period. The second bill would introduce a merit pay system, where teachers would receive bonuses for taking hard-to-fill positions or taking on leadership roles. A third education reform bill was returned to committee for revisions before the Senate could vote on it. It would require students to take four online courses to graduate, would increase the minimum teacher pay from $29,655 to $30,000, and would increase class sizes in grades four through 12. The class size increase and online course requirement would help to fund the teacher merit pay bill that was approved. The two bills that passed must now be voted on in the state House of Representatives, while the third bill will likely come up for a vote in the Senate next week. More here…

Georgia House Will Consider Cuts to HOPE Scholarship
The Georgia House of Representatives Appropriations Committee this week approved a plan that would make deep cuts to Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program. The program currently covers in-state tuition at public colleges and universities and provides scholarships of $4,000 for private university tuition to students who demonstrate academic achievement in high school. Under the new plan, only students with at least a 3.7 grade point average and a 1200 on the SAT would qualify for full scholarships to public institutions. Those with slightly lower grade point averages would have a portion of their tuition covered. Students attending private institutions would see their scholarships reduced to $3,600. Legislators estimate that 200,000 current students would see reductions to their HOPE awards. The cuts are proposed as a way to keep the program afloat over the long term as lottery proceeds – the main funding stream for the grants – have not been able to keep up with rising costs and enrollment. More here…