Friday News Roundup: Week of June 4-8

Michigan Senate finalizes 2013 budget, education outlays

Plaintiff school districts, state battle in Kansas school finance hearing

Schools take heavy hit in new Illinois budget

Missouri officials seek fix for school funding formula

Michigan Senate finalizes 2013 budget, education outlays
Michigan lawmakers voted this week to approve fiscal year 2013 K-12 and higher education budgets, the final piece of the state’s full budget. The legislature approved the budgets four days after the legislature’s voluntary deadline of June 1, which Sen. Roger Kahn, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said was still early enough to give school districts time to plan their own budgets for the upcoming 2013 school year. The budget provides $12.9 billion for public K-12 schools, an increase of 1.6 percent from fiscal year 2012 levels. That money includes an increase in the per-pupil base expenditure of $120 per student over 2012 amounts, up to $6,966 per student. Additionally, public universities will receive $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2013, and the state will spend another $294 million on community colleges. Those totals represent small hikes over current-year levels, but neither the K-12 nor the college and university increases are sufficiently large to make up for cuts to their budgets in fiscal year 2012. More here…

Plaintiff school districts, state battle in Kansas school finance hearing
Kansas is embroiled in a lawsuit over cuts to funding for K-12 schools in fiscal years 2008 through 2013. Fifty-four school districts have filed suit to recover that money, saying that the state has not provided the “suitable” amount of funding needed to educate students as required since a 2006 school finance lawsuit. After the 2006 case, the state legislature increased the base level per-pupil aid including annual adjustments. That funding should have reached $4,492 in fiscal year 2012. During the recession, though, lawmakers cut the base state funding for fiscal year 2012 to $3,780 per student. According to the districts’ attorneys, minority and inner-city students have been the most affected by the cuts. For its part, the state argues that declining academic performance is unrelated to the drop in funding, and says that the current per-pupil funding amount meets the definition of “suitable” financing for education. More here…

Schools take heavy hit in new Illinois budget
Under a fiscal year 2013 budget Illinois lawmakers approved last week, public K-12 schools will face a loss of $210 million in state funding next year, 3.1 percent below current fiscal year 2012 levels. On a per-pupil basis, the state will provide only 89 percent of the required $6,119 per-student base funding in fiscal year 2013, as compared to 95 percent in the current fiscal year. Additionally, the budget will cut 45 percent of funding for low-income students’ school lunches from 2012 levels, and early childhood education funding will decline by 7.6 percent. The early childhood cuts come on top of the loss of about 7,000 slots statewide for young children in fiscal year 2012. Postsecondary education will lose about $152 million, or 5.9 percent, from 2012 levels; $80 million of that will come from public universities. The legislature also cut the state need-based scholarship program for college students by 4 percent, and community colleges will also face a 4 percent cut from current-year levels. Governor Pat Quinn began the process of approving the final budget this week. More here…

Missouri officials seek fix for school funding formula
Officials in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are working to adjust the state’s school finance formula after a budget shortfall led to concerns that some districts would see major increases in funding in fiscal year 2013 while others would see significant drops from their fiscal year 2012 allocations. Lawmakers had hoped to revise the formula, but were unable to agree on a solution before adjourning in May. Though the “state adequacy target,” a base funding level per student, is currently set to increase from $6,131 in 2012 to $6,423 next year, the Department will hold it at fiscal year 2012 levels. However, state funds will be inadequate to reach that frozen funding level. As a result, the state will have to prorate the available funds to districts. If the state’s budget outlook brightens, eliminating the need to prorate the funds, the state will distribute the full $6,131 per student to districts. Any extra funds would go towards increasing the base per-pupil funding level. More here…