Here are a few notes I took at the Rural School Legislative Forum yesterday. Speakers included Governor Heineman, Senator Adams (Education committee chair), Senator Heideman (Appropriations chair), Senator Fischer (Transportation chair), Senator Flood (speaker), Russ Inbody (Department of Education School Finance) and Trent Nowka (Lobbyist for Rural School Association). I also had lunch with Senator Brasch (Revenue committee).
State aid formula. The projections for state aid came in $28 million dollars under budget. There is a push from the school lobby to adjust the formula to get closer to the $880 million budgeted amount. The larger schools want to change the "averaging adjustment" which benefits only the largest 25 schools in the state. The other option is to reduce the "Local Effort Rate" which will affect all schools.
Truancy- The Law that requires schools to report students absent over 20 days to the County Attorney would also require schools to indicate whether or not prosecution is warranted when they report students. Schools could choose to handle the matter themselves. Senator Ashford wants this bill passed.
Attendance- A bill that would increase the mandatory attendance age from 16 (when parents can sign their children out) to 18. No indication yet where this bill is going.
It is likely that a state aid bill will come out of the education committee increasing state aid to schools, but it will not increase aid by the $28 million. The bill will probably push back certification of state aid until as late as May 1. It doesn't appear that any of the proposed adjustments to the formula will decrease the amount of aid Bancroft-Rosalie School will receive next year. But anything is possible.
