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Education committee hears staffing report; bureau staff say matrix is a funding, not a spending, model
Summary
Bureau of Legislative Research presenters told the joint Senate Education Committee that Arkansas’s K–12 foundation matrix provides funding levels for many staff positions but districts often spend those dollars differently; staff said the matrix is a funding model and further detail on how districts allocate foundation dollars will come in upcoming categorical and district reports.
At a joint meeting of the Senate Education Committee, Bureau of Legislative Research staff reviewed the matrix staffing report and described a recurring pattern: foundation funding provides for staff positions across districts, but district expenditures do not always match those line items.
“It's a funding model. It's not a spending model,” Jasmine Ray, a BLR presenter, said while explaining why foundation allocations and district expenditures can diverge. Committee members pressed the presenters for specifics on apparent shortfalls; one member noted that, when comparing foundation funding to reported expenditures across staffing lines, districts were spending about $223,000,000 less of the foundation funding on staffing than the state provided.
The report examined…
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