All Other $25,000

Provides funds to develop a regional education cost-adjustment model based on a public education price index.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION __________

TOTAL $29,518,680

SUMMARY

The purpose of this bill is to ensure that pupil equity and taxpayer equity are achieved through the school funding formula. This bill accomplishes the following.

1. It clarifies that the statutory provisions requiring the state share of school construction debt service costs must be supported by General Fund appropriations by:

A. Indicating that the Legislature shall annually report the aggregate amount of the state share of the allocation for debt service costs as a separate line item and program account in the budget bill submitted to the Legislature for consideration; and

B. Indicating that the Legislature shall annually appropriate an amount to capitalize the state share of debt service costs that is separate from the appropriation for general purpose aid for local schools.

2. It suspends the annual updating of the income weight in the School Finance Act of 1995 by establishing that the income weight used in fiscal year 1997-98 must be used beginning in fiscal year 1999-00 and must remain fixed at the level of the median household income data reported in the United States Census data. Fiscal year 1997-98 median household income data must be used for the statewide component and for the local municipality component of income weighting for each fiscal year until fiscal year 2001-02 when the department shall use the median household income data reported in the United States Census for 2000 report for each fiscal year until fiscal year 2011-12 when the data for the United States Census for 2010 must be used.

3. It replaces the so-called "cost-of-living adjustment" in the School Finance Act of 1995 with a regionalized cost- adjustment model that is based on a public education price