Three K-12 related bills passed the House Appropriations committee to start the final week of 90th legislative session.
House Appropriators approved Senate Bill 53, which would provide the proposed two percent increase to the state aid formula and bring the per-student allocation to approximately $4,877 for the 2015-16 school year.
At two percent, the proposed increase is 0.5 percent higher than the statutorily required 1.5 percent increase, which was made possible by the addition of the costs of school technology, assessment and the sparsity factor to the school funding formula.
Appropriators also passed Senate Bill 54, which provides the proposed two percent increase in state aid for schools, changes the maximum level of the special education tax levy, adjusts the funding for disability levels and adds the South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired to local need calculation at the statewide level.
Finally, Senate Bill 176, which would appropriate funds for the development of online resources and a rubric of textbook analysis for use in school districts, was passed by the committee.
SB 53 and 54 were inconsequently amended. SB 76 was amended from $1 of placeholder funding to $2. The amendments were added in order for further discussion on each bill to continue once revenue projections are adopted on Wednesday (3/11).
Revenue projections were presented to legislative appropriators on Monday (3/9) and came in below what was presented in December.
For updates on the bills, check the ASBSD Blog, Bill Tracker and Twitter feed.