Schools panel in Arkansas Senate OKs budget report

$45.6M more per year urged

Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang is shown in this 2015 file photo.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang is shown in this 2015 file photo.

Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Education Committee broke an impasse Tuesday afternoon and voted to approve a report recommending how to spend more than $3 billion on public schools.

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Arkansas Secretary of State

Jane English

The senators' action came on the day of the deadline imposed by state law. However, the House Education Committee -- which also is required by law to approve a report, either with the Senate committee or separately -- did not meet Tuesday, and legislative leaders were unclear if that panel would vote on the report.

Tuesday's action means the Senate panel voted to recommend raising public school funding by about $45.6 million in fiscal 2018 and by the same amount again in fiscal 2019. The recommendation includes a provision for schools to increase minimum teacher salaries by $400 in each of those two fiscal years, to $31,800. Fiscal 2018 starts July 1.

The move came after discussions broke down between Democrats and Republicans on both the House and Senate Education panels on Monday, and some lawmakers talked of leaving the matter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who will present his proposed budget for fiscal 2018 to lawmakers a week from today.

Asked what had changed, Senate Education Committee Chairman Jane English, R-North Little Rock, said: "People sitting down together. It's amazing what can happen when you get everyone sitting down at the same room and they agree."

Senate Education Committee members said they met Tuesday morning with Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang at his request.

"I think what we saw [Monday] was really just a lack of communication among members," said Dismang, a Searcy Republican. "There really wasn't that much disagreement, I don't think, to begin with."

Monday's discussions had culminated in a party-line vote of both the House and Senate panels and no clear path forward for the educational adequacy report, which is required because of laws passed in the aftermath of a series of Arkansas Supreme Court decisions on educating children in kindergarten through 12th grade. The law doesn't specify what happens if the Nov. 1 deadline isn't met.

The report recommends how state funding should be spent by districts and whether there should be any increase to ensure an equitable and adequate education for the state's 476,000 public school students, regardless of what district they are in.

The total funding increase was about the same in Tuesday's proposal as it was in Monday's, but some categories changed.

Funding intended for operations, maintenance, secretaries and extra duties was less than in Monday's proposal, but more money was recommended for teacher salaries, the increase in the minimum salary for teachers was greater and more money was reserved for the special-education "catastrophic fund." That program reimburses schools for educating students with severe disabilities.

The House and Senate committees had jointly voted to approve a $20 million increase to the special-education fund by fiscal 2019, but House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, had called for a vote to expunge the recommendation.

He said the Oct. 3 meeting where the recommendation was approved was poorly attended, and not everyone understood what they were voting on.

On Monday, the committee's proposal called for expunging that vote, but Tuesday, lawmakers agreed to allow for a $4 million funding increase by fiscal 2019.

Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, who weeks ago made the motion to include the special-education funding in the report, said Tuesday that he was pleased that senators were able to come to a consensus.

"We are addressing the most crucial needs of public education in the state of Arkansas," he said.

Lawmakers begin their next biennial adequacy report in the summer of 2017, weeks or months after the regular session ends. The Senate Education Committee won't wait until the last day to finalize that report in 2018, Lindsey said.

"Thirty or 40 of our districts basically pay their teachers the minimum salary. That in some places is not a subsistence wage, and we think we need to address that," he said. "We debated this morning about how we address that in a way that meets the test of equity and adequacy, but yet also meets the test of what Lake View tells us to do. We basically ran out of time."

The now-defunct Lake View School District is one of the districts that sued over the adequacy of state education funding.

House Education Committee Chairman Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs, said the Senate Education Committee did the right thing Tuesday. He said the House Education Committee has a meeting scheduled for Nov. 21.

"I'm going to give them an option to confirm the Senate vote," he said.

Cozart noted that while senators recommended increasing the funding intended for teacher salaries, school districts are by no means obligated to follow the recommendation.

Districts will take the $6,713 per student recommended for fiscal 2018 and spend it how they see fit, he said. It's the Legislature that looks at the categories -- like teacher salaries -- that contribute to the bottom line.

Cozart said that because there are fewer senators, they can more easily negotiate.

The Senate Education Committee has eight senators -- five Republicans and three Democrats.

On the House side, there are 18 representatives on the committee -- eight Republicans, nine Democrats and one independent.

House Minority Leader Michael John Gray, D-Augusta, declined to comment Tuesday. He is a member of the House Education Committee and watched the Senate committee on Tuesday from the back of the room. On Monday, Gray said there was room for further conversation.

On Monday, Cozart said he did not believe that special-education funding was a major holdup but said education groups emphasized reports about teacher salaries slipping and the need to raise them.

During Tuesday's meeting, English asked Tony Prothro, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association, and Richard Abernathy, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, to tell school districts to spend the additional state money on teacher salaries.

Both agreed to do so.

"I think sometimes folks do not understand that we don't set local school districts' salary schedule," English said. "It's the local school district. It's something that I think needs to be telegraphed more by the association folks."

The Senate's proposal calls for a recommended 2.5 percent increase in state money intended for teacher salaries by fiscal 2019.

The state ranks 31st in the nation for per-student funding. On average, Arkansas spent $9,538 per student in the 2012-13 school year, according to the educational adequacy report. That number includes contributions from federal, state and local governments.

Hutchinson is required by law to present his budget on Nov. 9, the day after Tuesday's general election. The governor's budget usually includes the education committees' recommended budget for schools.

In response to a request for comment, J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Hutchinson, said the governor needs to review the report.

While committee members have been working on a blueprint for education funding, Hutchinson has called for an income tax cut for Arkansans. He has said he believes the state can support a $50 million-a-year cut on top of what was approved in the 2015 regular legislative session.

For every $2 more per student the state provides, the total state budget increases by almost $1 million.

A Section on 11/02/2016

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