House Ways & Means debates H.955 foundation formula amid warnings it could pressure small districts to merge

Members of the House Ways & Means Committee spent the session debating H.955’s proposed foundation funding formula and how it would interact with district consolidations, with multiple lawmakers warning the formula could effectively force mergers and cause short-term harms to small districts.

Representative Burkhart said the current language would apply the foundation formula to the state’s existing district structure and “we are essentially using the foundation formula to force mergers. We're saying that we're not forcing mergers, but we are using it to basically put so much financial pressure on districts that they're going to find it impossible to operate without merging with someone.” Burkhart urged colleagues to consider interim harms to students who could lose programs or prompt families to leave the district while mergers are arranged.

Supporters and skeptics traded views on whether voluntary mergers, coupled with newly created regional structures called CISAs in the bill, would achieve the scale needed to protect smaller districts. Representative Pigley and others cited the governor’s aim for larger service regions and asked whether seven CISAs would be realistic; some lawmakers said mandating mergers would be more effective but is not politically feasible now.

Teddy criticized the voluntary approach as a transfer of responsibility: “We're passing these really hard decisions from the resourced apparatus of state government to less resourced school boards, administrators, and communities,” he said, urging lawmakers to weigh whether the state should accept more responsibility to ensure equitable outcomes.

Several members described concrete local consequences. One legislator noted rural towns that lack a high school and depend on longstanding arrangements to send students elsewhere; others pointed to recent local budget defeats and a district vote to close a small school as evidence of fiscal stress.

Discussion also addressed how savings would be distributed. Lawmakers noted that savings from prior, more formal mergers have tended to flow back to the originating district, while the bill’s CISA approach aims to spread benefits more broadly — an outcome speakers said could improve equity but depends on implementation details.

Throughout the session members stressed that the package represents multi-year, transformative change rather than a single fix. Several urged the committee to provide clearer numbers and transition supports — including making Joint Fiscal Office analyses available to districts doing merger work — so local boards can see the consequences before decisions are finalized.

The committee paused its work for the day; the chair said the language expected for the next meeting would include only small tweaks and the panel will reconvene the following morning to continue consideration of H.955.