State Budget Cards now on the Table

State House and Senate budget proposals released this week contain important differences in education spending compared to Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan released in February. Now negotiations begin to hammer out a final budget by sometime in June.
Most notably, the House and Senate budgets would fund virtual schools at the same per-pupil level as traditional brick-and-mortar districts. Snyder proposed cutting funding to online schools to 80 percent of the per-pupil amount and using the savings to increase high school funding by $50 per student – a funding boost not included in either the House or Senate budgets.

Both the House and Senate budgets include $2.5 million for private schools to seek reimbursement for certain expenses – a controversial provision included in last year’s budget, now the subject of a lawsuit by several education groups. Snyder did not include private school funding in his budget.

Under the governor’s plan, schools with declining enrollments would receive $7 million, funding not included in either the House or Senate proposals.
Other differences between the three proposed budgets include:

Per-pupil allowances
Governor: +$50-100 (for districts with highest to lowest foundation allowance levels)
House: +$100
Senate: +$88-176 (with accompanying loss of funding to help cover MPSERS payments)
Third Grade Reading
Governor: $33 million
House: $25.4 million
Senate: $28.4 million
At Risk
Governor: $150 million
House: $129.1 million
Senate: $100 million
Community Colleges
Governor: +.6 percent
House: -.2 percent
Senate: +1.4 percent
Higher Ed
Governor: +2.5 percent
House: +1.9 percent
Senate: +2 percent