Ed Money Watch

At Ed Money Watch, we discuss and analyze major issues affecting education funding. In our Friday News Roundup, we try to highlight interesting stories that might otherwise get overlooked. These stories emphasize how federal and state policy changes can affect local schools and districts.

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Challenge Governor on Education Spending

New Jersey Supreme Court Upholds Teacher Pension Payment Ruling

Oregon Could Lose Federal Stimulus Aid Under Governor’s Budget Cuts

Wisconsin State Superintendent Proposes Funding Formula Change

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Challenge Governor on Education Spending
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has proposed a $355 million increase in the state’s K-12 education spending for the coming 2011 fiscal year. Republicans in the state legislature are hesitant to approve the increase when the state is facing a $1.3 billion deficit. From fiscal year 2003 – the year before Governor Rendell took office – to fiscal year 2010, the state education budget has risen from $6.6 billion to $11.4 billion. Governor Rendell’s proposed increase would bring fiscal year 2011 education spending to $11.8 billion. Citing recent improvement in Pennsylvania’s educational achievement and other education outcomes, Governor Rendell argues that the state must continue to invest in public education. Republican lawmakers maintain that the current education budget includes plenty of money to educate the state’s children. More here…

New Jersey Supreme Court Upholds Teacher Pension Payment Ruling
The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to hear a case brought against the state by the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the state’s largest teachers union. The NJEA case sought to make it a constitutional requirement for the state to pay the full amount it owes each year for teacher pensions. For more than a decade, the state legislatures have overridden a rule requiring full payments. The state currently owes $46 billion more than it has available to pay the $135 billion bill for current and future retiree pensions. If the state doesn’t find a way to pay the bill in full, future services could be cut. The Supreme Court’s rejection of the case means the legislature will not be constitutionally bound to pay the full amount it owes. More here…

Oregon Could Lose Federal Stimulus Aid Under Governor’s Budget Cuts
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski this week ordered a 9 percent across-the-board budget cut to close a $577 million hole in the state’s fiscal year 2011 budget. The cut would bring state funding levels for higher education and K-12 education below 2006 levels by a total of about $32 million. By falling below 2006 funding levels, the state would violate the “maintenance of effort” requirement in the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the state would stand to lose $570 million in State Fiscal Stabilization Fund monies. State officials said they would not allow the state to lose these funds. The state may apply for a waiver, but few states that have requested such waivers have received them. Other alternatives include shifting funds from last year’s higher education account, which exceeded 2006 spending levels by $18 million, into the 2011 budget – but the state would still be $14 million short. More here…

Wisconsin State Superintendent Proposes Funding Formula Change
Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers this week released a proposal that would change the way the state distributes funds to school districts. In his 2011-2013 state budget proposal, which he will present to the governor in September, Evers included his “Fair Funding for Our Future” proposal, which would guarantee a minimum level of state aid for each student, provide more money to low-income school districts, and end a $900 million property tax credit, directing that new revenue to the state’s general school aid formula. The proposal would also consolidate and streamline the state’s 40 different funding streams for categorical school aid. Evers claims his proposal will save teacher jobs and minimize other cuts. Opponents claim that the proposal wouldn’t save as much money as Evers claims, and that it would not address the real root of Wisconsin’s public education spending problems – like the way school districts with declining enrollment spend money. Any change in the school aid funding formula would have to be passed by the state legislature, so Evers plans to work with lawmakers to craft a final proposal that is politically viable by the end of the summer. More here…

Briefly Noted

• Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education approve a 5.1 percent in-state tuition and fees increase.