Funding proposed for K-12 education in 2020-2021

Governor’s FY21 Supplemental Education Budget Proposal:

• For FY21, the EPS education allocation is proposed to increase from $2.292 billion to $2.369 billion –an increase of $77 million.
• Major components of the increase:
  • $37M (2.5%) increase in basic operating allocation. This is essentially just the ordinary inflation of annual costs, largely from salaries and also any increases from expanding Pre-K. But also includes an increased allocation for system administration, restoring reductions in allocation made in the previous biennium in order to offset an increase in allocation for economic disadvantage.
  • $28M (5.2%) increase in subsidized costs. These are mostly costs from actual expenses of special education which are still increasing somewhat disproportionately
  • $4.0M (33%) additional to the “laptop” program
  • $3.2M (6%) additional for Career and Technical Education
  • $2.1M of new subsidy for increasing minimum teacher salaries
  • $1.0M in broadened subsidy for districts engaging in regionalization. Access to this subsidy was liberalized last session.
  • $0.7M (8.5%) increase to the Baxter School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
  • $0.15M (300%) increase in grants to Community School pilots
  • $0.05M in a new spending request for professional development in rural schools
• The budget proposes to increase the the state share of the cost of education from $1.164B to $1.227B by $63M (5.4%)
• An additional $26M of GPA was already appropriated in the biennial budget for FY21. So, to reach $63M, the total supplemental budget request for GPA is $37M. 
• The additional $63M in GPA will increase the state’s share of EPS, as required by statute, by 1% from 50.8% to 51.8%
• To cover the balance of the $77M increase in total allocation, the required local share is increasing by $14M.
• Because the state’s overall property valuation is increasing, even with the $14M increase in local share, the required minimum mil rate for education is decreasing from 8.28 mils to 8.18 mils.