The following is a summary of governors’ education proposals for fiscal 2001. The figures for the state budget and for pre-collegiate education spending include money for state education administration, but not federal, flow-through dollars. Estimated enrollment reflects the state’s projected public school enrollment for 2000-01, unless otherwise noted. Depending on the state, figures may or may not include prekindergarten spending and enrollment.
CALIFORNIA
Governor: Gray Davis (D)
FY 2001 proposed state budget: $88.05 billion
FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $29.76 billion
FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $26.50 billion
Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +12.3 percent
Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 5.9 million
Highlights:
- Governor’s spending plan would increase average per-pupil spending in grades K-12 from $6,045 in fiscal 2000 to a projected $6,313 for fiscal 2001.
- Proposed budget includes a $112 million merit-scholars program tied to state tests that would provide a $1,000 scholarship to 9th, 10th, and 11th graders who scored in the top 10 percent at their grade levels statewide, or in the top 5 percent in their classes at their own schools. Students who scored at high levels for all three years would receive a total of $3,000 toward college.
- Plan would also increase funding for teacher training, recruitment, and retention. Includes a proposal to grant one-time, $20,000 awards to pay living and educational costs for 1,000 teacher candidates who agreed to teach for four years in hard-to-staff schools following graduation. Also calls for $50 million to provide 5,000 teachers with $10,000 home loans that would be forgiven if teachers worked five years in hard-to-staff schools.
DELAWARE
Governor: Thomas R. Carper (D)
FY 2001 proposed state budget: $2.68 billion
FY 2001 proposed K-12 budget: $707.4 million
FY 2000 K-12 budget: $666.7 million
Percent change K-12 budget: +6.1 percent
Estimated K-12 enrollment: 113,000
Highlights:
- As part of his educator-accountability proposal, Gov. Carper wants to use $3 million to create a new, three-tiered licensure and certification system that would allow teachers to progress from entry- level to advanced licenses.
- Governor proposes new funding for professional development, allotting $2.5 million to a “skills and knowledge” development fund to help districts create better professional-development opportunities for teachers, and $3.1 million to add two more days each year for professional development to teachers’ schedules.
- He also proposes spending $1 million so that each school district could hire a “reading-intervention specialist” to work with teachers on instructional techniques and with students who were having trouble learning to read.
IOWA
Governor: Thomas J. Vilsack (D)
FY 2001 proposed state budget: $4.9 billion
FY 2001 proposed K-12 budget: $2.13 billion
FY 2000 K-12 budget: $2.05 billion
Percent change K-12 budget: +3.9 percent
Estimated K-12 enrollment: 498,556
Highlights:
- Proposed budget includes a 4 percent increase in basic state aid to school districts for the 2000-01 school year, which the legislature approved last year in advance. This year, lawmakers are considering Gov. Vilsack’s recommendation that such aid increase at the same rate for fiscal 2002.
- Governor wants to start providing state funding for the first time for school facilities, proposing $10 million in grants to help schools comply with fire codes and a $300 million bond program over 10 years to offer funding that districts would have to match.
- Budget proposes $9.8 million to create a new program that would allow more districts to establish alternative schools. Current system funnels money for alternative schools through community colleges and leaves out many districts.
KANSAS
Governor: Bill Graves (R)
FY 2001 proposed state budget: $6.5 billion
FY 2001 proposed K-12 budget: $2.34 billion
FY 2000 K-12 budget: $2.21 billion
Percent change K-12 budget: +5.9 percent
Estimated K-12 enrollment: 469,000
Highlights:
- Proposed budget includes a $50 increase in base state aid per pupil—from $3,770 in fiscal 2000 to $3,820—which the legislature approved last year in advance.
- Governor recommends spending $4.5 million to build an information network that would provide Internet access and related technology to all districts, libraries, and regional educational- technology cooperatives.
- Budget includes $500,000 for violence-prevention grants, which would pay for mental-health services in schools through partnerships involving schools, mental-health providers, and local coordinating councils.
- Mr. Graves proposes spending $1 million to expand a competitive- grant program to help schools provide early-childhood education to at- risk 4-year-olds. The additional funding would expand the program from fewer than 1,800 children to more than 2,200.
KENTUCKY
Governor: Paul E. Patton (D)
FY 2001 proposed state budget: $13.64 billion
FY 2001 proposed K-12 budget: $2.95 billion
FY 2000 K-12 budget: $2.86 billion
Percent change K-12 budget: +3.1 percent
Estimated K-12 enrollment: 624,000
Highlights:
- In addition to recommending $2.95 billion for education in fiscal 2001—the first year of the proposed biennial budget that is before lawmakers—governor’s spending plan would raise K-12 spending by 2.9 percent, to $3.05 billion, in fiscal 2002.
- General aid—which refers to base funding for schools—would rise to $1.59 billion in fiscal 2001, or by 1 percent, and to $1.62 billion the next year, or by 2 percent.
- Mr. Patton is proposing that the state spend $3.1 million on a new teacher-quality task force in fiscal 2001 and $5.2 million for the committee in 2002.
MARYLAND
Governor: Parris N. Glendening (D)
FY 2001 proposed state budget: $13.6 billion
FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $3.16 billion
FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $3.07 billion
Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +2.9 percent
Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 847,000
Highlights:
- Governor’s budget plan includes $54 million in basic education funding for enrollment increases in prekindergarten through 12th grade.
- Mr. Glendening also proposes a controversial plan to earmark $6 million for religious and other private schools to purchase textbooks, and includes $9.4 million in his budget for new bonuses and mentoring support to help lure more teachers to the state.
- The budget also calls for $8 million to put a telephone in every classroom, and includes an $11.7 million request to continue funding a program to reduce class sizes for reading in 1st and 2nd grades.
- Governor also recommends an additional $265 million in spending on construction and modernization of school buildings as part of a four-year refurbishment plan.·Governor also recommends an additional $265 million in spending on construction and modernization of school buildings as part of a four-year refurbishment plan.
MICHIGAN
Governor: John Engler (R)
FY 2001 proposed state budget: $36.2 billion
FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $10.51 billion
FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $10.03 billion
Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +4.8 percent
Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 1.71 million
Highlights:
- Gov. Engler proposes three-year school budget, with minimum state grant of $6,500 per student each of those years, up from $5,700 this fiscal year.
- Budget includes $38 million for summer school in 2001 for 4th graders who do not reach grade level in state math or reading tests. In subsequent years, the program would be expanded, first to 3rd graders and then to 2nd graders.
- Also earmarks $55 million annually in both of the next two fiscal years to train teachers in classroom use of technology and to supply each trained teacher with a computer and Internet access.
- In addition, Mr. Engler wants $27.5 million to expand prekindergarten and Head Start programs; $10 million to upgrade quality and usefulness of information about school districts available to public; and $8 million for individual rewards to staff members at elementary schools with best or most-improved scores on state tests.
