Three dollar bills   Three K-12 education special project bills survived the Senate Appropriations cutting room floor on Tuesday. Each bill heads to the Senate floor today with just one dollar attached to them   Committee members passed Senate Bill 233, which establishes the critical needs teaching scholarship program for student’s looking to enter the […]

It’s not the impending snow storm, but the “Crossover Day” flurry that happens Wednesday afternoon on the House and Senate floors as legislators work to pass or defer all the bills on the docket before the end of the day.   Before that flurry, committees met to discuss a variety of bills already passed through

Two bills received big changes at Tuesday’s Senate Appropriations committee hearing that will in turn have big effects on K-12 funding.   Committee members passed an amended version of Senate Bill 28 on a 6-2 vote. SB 28 revises the property tax levies for school districts’ general and special education funds.   The bill is

House Taxation committee members passed a bill that would create a property tax levy for leased residential property at Tuesday’s meeting on a 9-4 vote.   House Bill 1143 sets the leased property levy would be set at $8.62 per $1,000 of taxable valuation and is defined as any single-family unit or structure consisting of

Pilot Program passed on   House Education committee members passed House Bill 1183 on an 8-7 vote this morning. The action comes after the bill was deferred on Wednesday and now moves to House Appropriations.   HB 1183 calls for the appropriation of funds to put a computer and Internet access into the homes of

This week provided two lengthy days of school funding talk in the Senate Appropriations committee meetings.   At the center of the discussion were proposed adjustments to the state aid funding formula, which Executive Director Wade Pogany summed up as three different solutions to one problem.   “We have a crisis in education,” Pogany testified

Senate votes to extend sunset   A bill to extend the sunset date on capital outlay flexibility passed through the Senate on a 29-6 vote.   Senate Bill 194 would extend the provision allowing school districts to use capital outlay funds for certain insurance, energy, utilities and motor fuel costs to 2018. The provision, which

Members of the House voted 56-11 to advance a bill that would reduce the amount of state aid and eliminate the small school adjustment for a school district that drops under 100 total students if the district does not reorganize in the two-year window currently allotted by state law.   “It gives (school districts) another

Public hearings, proposals and payments   Committee members will decide whether or not to change the current financial requirement for school boards to conduct a public hearing on certain purchases.   House Bill 1200 would require school boards to hold a public hearing on any proposed purchase, lease or issue of capital outlay certificate that