The House’s Appropriations and Public Education Committees met for two days on September 28 & 29 to hear testimony on: (1) overview of the school finance system, litigation and revenue; (2) additional state aid for tax reduction (ASATR); (3) recapture; and (4) district adjustments. The committees' chairmen, along with several members, noted that the best way to rebuild the state’s school finance system is to increase the “basic allotment”- the base amount of money given to each district per student and that is used in calculating the district adjustments.
Of particular note is the 22% decrease in funding for the state’s facilities programs, the Instructional Facilities Allotment and the Existing Debt Allotment. Experts stated in the hearing that the reductions in funding these programs and others are occurring because of the state's continued reliance on a local property tax for a majority of the funding for public education.
