Senate budget adds $55 million in P-12 cuts to the House's $56 million in reductions

An earlier post today pointed out that the Senate plan requires districts to provide two more days of instruction than the House budget--but does not provide any funding for those days.  Now, let's turn to the full set of P-12 spending plans.

The House 2012 budget offered $56 million less for P-12 education than the state's original budget for the current (2010) fiscal year.

The Senate version cuts an additional $55 million from the House approach.

The Senate plan has just one line item with a larger 2021 budget than the House plan, providing:

• $25.5 million more for local educators’ health insurance

The Senate plan pulls back from all the other House increases, with reductions of:

• $34 million from school facilities
• $2 million from unidentified spending that likely includes the  state's education technology network and the operations of the state department 
• $300 thousand from local vocational schools
• $284 thousand from school safety

The Senate plan also cuts many other areas where the House had already cut, including taking:

• $24 million more from SEEK base funding
• $1.2 million more from Tier I
• $6.5 million more from teachers retirement
• $5 million more from intervention in weak schools using highly skilled educations and school improvement grants
• $2 million more from preschool
• $1.4 million more from family resource and youth service centers
• $473 thousand more from the Read to Achieve program
• $438 thousand more from school technology
• $427 thousand more from state vocational schools
• $356 thousand from the schools for the blind and deaf
• $321 thousand more from extended school services
• $26t thousand more from State Agency Children
• $235 thousand more from state testing
• $194 thousand more from the Education Professional Standards Board
• $172 thousand more from gifted and talented
• $151 thousand more from professional development
• $121 thousand more from debt service on money borrowed for school technology
• $16 thousand more from textbooks
• $479 thousand more from other local grants
• $356 thousand more from other state grants

The next step in the budget process will be a House vote on the Senate changes. It's essentially certain that the House reject the Senate changes, leading to a conference committee where Senators and Representatives try to negotiate a budget both houses can support.