Friday News Roundup: Week of April 2-6

Montana settlement in funding lawsuit means $4.6 million more for public schools

$30 million ‘bullet’ targets New York aid gap

Penn State students, alumni rally against proposed 30 percent cut in state support

Dayton vetoes GOP bill on Minnesota school IOUs

Montana settlement in funding lawsuit means $4.6 million more for public schools
A lawsuit settled this week between the Montana Quality Education Coalition and the state of Montana yielded $4.6 million in additional funding for public K-12 schools for the 2013 school year.  Another lawsuit, filed in 2002 by the Coalition, successfully argued that the state’s financing system was unconstitutional because it did not adequately fund public schools. In 2011, the state legislature passed a bill to increase public K-12 school funding for the 2013 school year by 2.4 percent, or around $3 million. But a political gimmick tied the funding to another bill that would move earmarked funds to state general funds, and when Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) vetoed that bill, the increase for schools was automatically lowered to 1.6 percent. The Coalition filed a lawsuit last November, again challenging school finance in the state. The state Attorney General reached a settlement this week to increase school funding by the full 2.4%. More here…

$30 million ‘bullet’ targets New York aid gap
New York’s state budget plan for fiscal year 2013 includes about $30 million in funding for public K-12 education, to be divvied up by lawmakers over the next several weeks as a way to fill in school district funding gaps.  The funds, which some argue are equivalent to earmarks because legislators use the money as a slush fund to prioritize funds for some districts without any application process, will provide money to districts above and beyond the “foundation” formula.  Foundation funding for fiscal year 2013 will total more than $15 billion, a $415 million increase over fiscal year 2012 levels.  The bullet aid is distributed between the Assembly and the Senate for allocation; the Senate receives $20.1 million, while the Assembly gets $9.1 million.  This year, for the first time, lawmakers are required to specify in legislation the recipients of the funds, and the resolution will have to pass both chambers. More here…

Penn State students, alumni rally against proposed 30 percent cut in state support
Penn State Capital Day, a lobbying effort in Harrisburg for Penn State students and alumni, kicked off this week with a rally on the steps of the Capitol Rotunda.  Participants were protesting Governor Tom Corbett’s (R) proposed 30 percent cut to the Pennsylvania State University’s state budget appropriation in fiscal year 2013.  The cut would reduce state funding for the university by $64.2 million from fiscal year 2012 levels, leaving its total state appropriation at about $150 million.  In 2012, the university’s appropriation was cut by 20 percent from fiscal year 2011 levels.  Corbett’s fiscal year 2013 budget would cut funding for all 14 of the state’s universities by an overall average of 20 percent. More here…

Dayton vetoes GOP bill on Minnesota school IOUs
The state of Minnesota owes its public K-12 schools more than $2 billion because it slowed the pace of scheduled back payments to them in an effort to balance the budget.  The state is expected to pay $315 million of that total this year thanks to higher-than-anticipated state revenue projections.  Governor Mark Dayton this week vetoed a Republican proposal that would have sped up the payments, adding another $430 million for public schools this year out of the state’s reserves. Dayton argued that the bill would place the state back in financial peril and could force it in the future to balance the budget by borrowing from banks.  An alternative proposal from the governor’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) political party would end some tax breaks for businesses and redirect the savings to schools. More here…