Appropriations committee adopts amendments to House Bill 504, keeps foundation formula intact and pares back some new programs

The Appropriations Committee on the bill record approved committee amendments to House Bill 504, the "blueprint" education funding bill, after a page-by-page presentation from a representative of the Speaker's office and discussion by committee members. The amendments keep the state's basic foundation formula at current law levels, remove some of the governor's newly proposed program formulas, and adjust several program provisions, including collaborative time and the Academic Excellence Fund.

The committee began with a detailed presentation from Michelle Lambert of the Speaker's office, who told the panel she would "walk through page by page the changes to the blueprint bill that are being offered by the committee." Lambert said the amendment package restores the foundation formula to current law and makes a number of program-level clarifications and cuts to proposed new funding formulas.

Why it matters: the foundation formula is the primary unrestricted portion of the Blueprint funding framework that local jurisdictions use to set spending priorities; changes to its structure or to items pulled out of the foundation number can translate to material changes in local school budgets. The committee's amendments were framed as…