Blog

Senate Action Alert

Voucher bills are headed to the floor of the Senate this week-contact your Senator and urge them to vote NO on SB 87 and SB 75. SB 87 is an expansion of the current tax credit “scholarship” voucher program that was further expanded in committee by Rep. Adam Thomas who added provisions to increase the current cap from $10 million to $15 million and expanded the overall maximum to $25 million annually. The bill also expands the tax credit to 100% which means “donors” are mere tax evaders, and it’s the rest of us who actually foot the...
Read more Leave a Comment

House Action Alert

We’ve reached the part of the session where bills go to the floor. Please contact your Representative in the House and urge them to increase the funding for SPED in HB 2007, the budget bill. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee voted to slash additional SPED funding from the $30 million that came out of a bipartisan vote in the K-12 Education Budget Committee. (Recall the Governor and State Board of Education have recommended around 5 years of $72 million annual increases to make up for the current shortfall, and the legislature funded the first $72 last year.)...
Read more Leave a Comment

How is One Legislator Able to Undermine Efforts to Fund Public Education?

We have been glad that Rep. Kristey Williams is no longer leading the K-12 Education Budget Committee but as Vice Chair as the House Appropriations Committee she is continuing to attempt to undermine efforts to improve public education. We hope the committee gets an education on the need for significant increases in special education to reduce the millions of dollars districts are taking from their general education budgets to fund mandated SPED services. As Rep. McDonald explains here the false method of calculating SPED funding was debunked last year. Contact members of the House Appropriations Committee , especially...
Read more Leave a Comment