Friday News Roundup: Week of December 14-18

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.

Mississippi School Districts Prepare for Funding Cuts

Ohio Legislators Pass Budget Repair Legislation

Indiana Education Board to Give Districts Options on Budget Cuts

Kansas Governor Says Education Funds Will Not Be Cut Further

Mississippi School Districts Prepare for Funding Cuts
Mississippi school districts are likely to face an additional 3 percent in budget cuts on top of the 5 percent in cuts made earlier this year for 2010 and another 1 percent in 2011. Luckily, district superintendents have been expecting these additional cuts and making efforts to limit their impact like increasing efficiency in transportation, and travel services and preparing teachers for reductions in salaries or days worked. The state’s joint budget committee has also recommended that districts be provided additional flexibility in the face of these additional cuts. This would enable superintendents to divide state funds among services as they see fit and employ innovative solutions to funding problems like increasing reliance on contract services. More here…

Ohio Legislators Pass Budget Repair Legislation
Ohio state legislators passed a budget repair bill on Thursday that fills the $851 million hole in education funding created after plans to install slow machines at race tracks collapsed. The bill delays a 4.2 percent cut in state income tax and begins a pilot program to reduce the cost of state construction projects at colleges and universities. Without this emergency legislation, Ohio would have likely become ineligible for State Fiscal Stabilization Funds as awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bill also makes it easier for districts to get waivers for the state’s full-day kindergarten requirement and earmarks $34 million for parochial schools. More here…

Indiana Education Board to Give Districts Options on Budget Cuts
The Indiana Board of Education announced that it will give school districts a list of options for ways they can eliminate a minimum of $300 million in state education spending. Specifically, the board wants to ensure that these spending cuts do not require districts to lay off teachers. Potential options include wage freezes, district consolidation, hiring suspensions, and increased local income taxes. The board also recommends that cuts begin in January, rather than in April as the state Department of Education requested. More here…

Kansas Governor Says Education Funds Will Not Be Cut Further
Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson said on Thursday that further cuts to education programs will hurt the quality of education in Kansas schools and that he will not approve any further cuts to K-12 or higher education. Thus far, K-12 has lost $300 million in state funding and higher education has lost $106 million. However, without further cuts, the state will face a deficit of $300 million going into 2010. Among other plans, Governor Parkinson is considering an increase in the cigarette tax to make up the difference. More here…

Briefly Noted

Alabama institutions of higher education unlikely to receive the $358 million to bring state spending back to 2008 levels.