Friday News Roundup: Week of February 25-March 1

 

 

 

 

 

The Arkansas House Finance Education Subcommittee proposed cutting $5.7 million from Governor Sean Parnell’s education budget for fiscal year 2014. This amounts to a 1.6 percent reduction to the state’s $357 million education budget. A significant portion of the proposed cuts would affect state pre-K programs, at a time when many states are pushing forward with pre-K expansion. The cuts would remove almost one-fifth of a $2.48 million pre-K pilot program and an additional $380,000 in early childhood development programs; in sum, total pre-kindergarten education would be reduced to $2 million. Other cuts to the education budget include $3.2 million in technology upgrades, justified due to insufficient teacher training. More here…

 

Of $634 million in renovation and construction projects Rutgers University is planning for its three campuses, they are asking the state to fund $425 million for fiscal year 2014. These projects include new science buildings on each campus in Piscataway, Newark, and Camden. The funding would also include renovation and construction for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which is being merged with the Rutgers University System. With this new merger, Rutgers will be gaining medical and dental schools in Piscataway and Newark as well. Dan Schulman, head of the governing board’s finance and facilities committee, raised the possibility of increasing the capital improvement fees paid by students to help fund part of the remainder of the projects. More here…

 

The University of Pennsylvania has raised a total of $4.3 billion in its “Making History Campaign,” exceeding their $3.5 billion target for December 2012. This five-year campaign, beginning in 2007, has now reached their goal 16 months ahead of schedule. The money has been used to increase financial aid, support research, and interdisciplinary programming, as well as to boost their $6.8 billion endowment. Additionally, $573 million will be set aside for additional faculty, director, coach, and curator positions; another $753 million will be used for building construction on campus. The largest contribution, $225 million, came from Raymond Perelman in 2011 to name the Perelman School of Medicine. More here…

 

The Texas Senate Finance Committee added $1.5 billion to the 2014-2015 biennial budget on Thursday. This additional funding represents a small part of the $5.4 billion that Texas public schools lost two years ago. State lawmakers, including Finance Committee chairman Tommy Williams, have indicated that the schools should not expect any more. Other legislators are reluctant to increase education spending, however, until the Texas Supreme Court rules on pending school finance litigation — earlier this month, a Texas district court ruled that the state’s school finance system is unconstitutional. Nearly $1.4 billion of the funding increase would be used for basic school aid, helping school districts address projected enrollment increases over the next two years. More here…