House approves school‑aid plan that increases foundation allowance, rolls up categoricals and adds penalties for certain district practices

The House Appropriations Committee on a 17‑12 recorded vote adopted the H‑1 substitute to House Bill 45 77, the school aid bill, a broad package that raises the foundation allowance, consolidates multiple categorical line items into a per‑pupil payment, and adds new boilerplate conditioning funding on several district policies.

Jacqueline Mullen, Senior Fiscal Analyst for House Fiscal, presented the summary. The House proposal increases the foundation allowance by $417 per pupil — from $9,608 to $10,025 per pupil — and does not adopt the executive and senate's smaller cyber school target; cyber schools would also receive the increase to $10,025, Mullen said. The bill creates a new per‑pupil payment (drafted as section 22f) and funds that payment primarily by "rolling up" existing categorical line items into the per‑pupil payment; the roll‑up is intended to simplify and move more funding into an undifferentiated per‑pupil payment, staff said.

The H‑1 contains a new section (22f) that House Fiscal described as providing a per‑pupil payment to districts, intermediate school districts and nonpublic schools. The bill includes…