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Appropriations committee reviews competing House and Senate changes to K-12 education funding
Summary
Committee members reviewed House and Senate modifications to an education funding package that includes school safety grants, mentor teacher funding, special education aid and other K-12 line items; members flagged differing House and Senate language and specific dollar amounts for 2025–2027.
The Committee on Appropriations reviewed competing House and Senate positions on a multi-part education package that included school safety grants, mentor-teacher funding, career and technical education (CTE) transportation and special education aid.
Committee members described the House offer as adding a one-time $5 million State General Fund (SGF) appropriation for a “safe and secure firearms detection” program restricted to public school buildings for two years, and indicated the funding was intended for 2026. The Senate position included different deletions and reallocations for related school-safety and professional-development accounts.
The committee spent the most time on safe-and-secure grants, where members noted multiple alternate positions: the House modification moved $5 million from a CBIU increase into one-time funding for public schools with a two-year limit; another line described a deletion of $5 million SGF for a related 2025 safe-and-secure schools item that the House did not recommend. The Senate proposal also included deletion of $3.5 million SGF for a safe-and-secure schools line and added language that would require minimum set-asides for CPR and AED instruction and purchases—at least $250,000 for instruction and $1 million for AED purchases and maintenance in public schools, with smaller minimums for nonpublic schools (for example, $25,000 for instruction and $125,000 for equipment in nonpublic schools).
Other K-12 items discussed included: - CTE transportation: the transcript records that the House did not recommend deleting this funding, so the committee retained those dollars in the House position. - Mentor teacher program: the House position retained funding while the Senate position deleted $1.3 million SGF for fiscal 2025. - Professional development: the House did not recommend deleting the funding; the Senate deleted $1.8 million on its side. - Computer science advancement grants: the House did not recommend deletion; the Senate deleted $1 million. - Teacher excellence and other smaller line items: the Senate deleted some amounts that the House retained, including roughly $360,006.93 from a teacher excellence line called out in the transcript. - Additional special education state aid: the House modified a line to add $5 million SGF for 2026; the transcript also notes a separate House modification adding $5 million SGF for 2027 in a later item. - Childcare acceleration grants: the House modified to add $1,000,000 (CIF) for the line.
Committee members asked clarifying questions about distribution and matching requirements for the safe-and-secure grants and whether CPI adjustments applied across all recipients or only to participating schools; staff answered that distribution and implementation details would be left “to the discretion of the Department of Education and the schools.” The committee also noted a printing error on an item where a Senate offer intended to be $1.5 million funded by CPI-U had been misprinted; a senator acknowledged and corrected the sheet.
Why it matters: these choices affect one-time and ongoing funding for school safety, special education, teacher supports and workforce supports for K-12 schools across the state. The committee’s discussion shows significant House–Senate differences that must be resolved before final appropriation language is set.
The committee moved on after other questions; no final recorded voice vote or formal adoption of package text appears in the transcript excerpt.
