The NC Senate budget recommendation would increase funding for public schools. Last year, the General Assembly approved $7,444,122,100 for the current year. The proposed budget would increase the K-12 budget to $7,478,264,218. (That is a net increase of $34,142,118.) Big ticket increases include a recurring appropriation of $47,414,503 for the Excellent Public Schools Act and $74,076,032 to decrease the “LEA Adjustment.” The LEA Adjustment is a predetermined amount of funding that school districts must return to the state.
The budget also includes up to $84,964,142 for Public School Salary Increases/Personnel Flexibility. The Senate allows local districts to determine how to use these funds. According to the Senate Committee Report, uses may include merit increases, across-the-board increases, recruitment bonuses, retention increases, and other bonuses. Districts may also use the funds to offset the LEA flexibility adjustment and to employ personnel.
The Senate budget also includes recurring appropriations for residential schools ($4,500,000) and Governor’s Schools ($800,000). My only recommendation is to use $300,000 of the Governor’s Schools funding for the Communities in Schools Reading Corps project match and the other $500,000 for improvements to EVAAS, the Education Value-Added Assessment System.
Unlike the budget approved by the NC House, the Senate does not use temporary funding to “buffer” the loss of temporary federal funds for public school personnel. Much to their credit, Senate budget writers discontinued the trend of using temporary funding for permanent expenditures.
In addition, the Senate budget does not include “pass through” funding for the Teacher Cadet program ($200,000), PTA Parental Involvement Initiative ($150,000), Tarheel ChalleNGe ($4 million), and the Teaching Fellows Program ($3.3 million). It will be interesting to see if the House leadership plans to fight for these line items.
