Senate, House Pass School Funding Measures

Late last year, the state revealed a surprise uptick of public school student enrollment, which led to a multi-million dollar gap in funding. Now, two bills to fix the nearly $16 million funding shortfall for this year have been approved – one in the House, and one in the Senate.

Lawmakers estimate enrollment numbers to figure out how much to set aside for school funding during budget sessions, but last year’s numbers turned out to be off the mark due to an unexpected surge of students enrolling in public schools.

Last week, the House passed legislation to address the shortfall. At a session Monday afternoon, the Senate also approved a measure to provide more money to public schools.

Lawmakers say a funding shortfall could happen during the 2018-2019 school year as well, but the approved measures would take up to $75 million from the state’s reserve fund available to address those gaps.