House Releases Budget Proposal
On Monday, the House released its budget proposal. Education is clearly a priority, along with mental health, forest fires and homelessness.
There is lots to like in the House budget related to public education, given the context. This is a supplemental budget year, which is typically reserved for minor operational tweaks. With this document, the House stated clearly that it sees its responsibility to make progress for our students, even in an “off-year.”
WEA agrees that some progress is better than none, and we support the House’s efforts to keep the ball moving until 2017. This is a step, albeit a small step, not the destination.
To fund these improvements, as well as their other priorities, the House is proposing to end a mix of outdated tax breaks that are no longer serving our state’s best interests.
K-12 includes:
$99 million to recruit and retain educators. Specific proposals are as follows:
- Increasing beginning teacher pay to $40,000
- Adding a $530 annual bonus for any who completes pro-cert (the amount was amended mid-week to correct a counting error. This number ensures that all certificated staff will receive this bonus.)
- Adding a 17th step to the salary schedule so that experienced educators receive a raise
- Adding a 1% increase for classified staff
- Increasing the National Board bonuses in high poverty schools, so that it is equivalent to the general NBCT bonus.
- Adding $5 million for the new educator mentorship program
- Funding $3 million for paraprofessional training (this is NOT tied to SB 6408)
$90 million to provide more resources and stability to districts to offset the pending “levy cliff.”
$3.2 million for school food programs – to reduce lunch copays and to fund breakfast after the bell programs.
$2 million for homeless students.
$2.5 million for grants and loans for those in certification programs and to fund other teacher shortage strategies in HB 2573.
Higher Education:
The House focused on student issues, including:
- Adding $1 million for the “free to finish college” bill
- Expanding MESA, the Math Engineering and Science Achievement program
- Providing grants to expand high demand fields
- Increasing funds for the state need grant
The House did not fix the I-732 funding issue in Community and Technical Colleges. It did propose to fund a study to look at over-reliance on part time faculty and to review converting some part-time to full-time faculty positions.
We expect to see the Senate on Wednesday. We don’t believe it will have much in common with the House budget. The remaining 2 ½ weeks of session will focus largely on finding a compromise path forward.
