It was a wild ride this week at the Legislature as both the Senate and the House took up their education finance and policy omnibus bills on their respective chambers. Both the Senate and House took about 6 hours to pass their bill, mainly party-line votes. In the hours of political theater, the majority party declares their bill as precisely what schools need with significant targeted investments to make positive transformation change. The minority party warns the bills are not focused on the actual needs of students, families, and educators and will cause great harm.
The House bill focuses on providing predictable and stable funding, eliminating racial disparities with a focus on increasing the number of teachers of color, and supporting student mental health. This House Session Daily article goes into more detail about the discussions on the House floor. I like this publication as the journalists are non-partisan and will also cover the concerns of the minority party. There are good things about this bill. SEE districts would benefit significantly from the amount of stable funding. Yet, it relies on increased taxes, which is a no-go in the Senate. Also, the bill contains many new mandates, some funded, others that are not.
The Senate education chair said his bill focuses on literacy, student mental health, teachers of color, fair
