Legislative Update

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The following is a summary of governors’ education proposals for fiscal 2001. The figures for the state budget and for precollegiate education spending include money for state education administration, but not federal, flow-through dollars. Percentage increases are based on rounded numbers, and 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.

ALABAMA

Governor: Donald Siegelman (D)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $7.5 billion

FY 2001 proposed K-12 budget: $3.03 billion

FY 2000 K-12 budget: $2.90 billion

Percent change K-12 budget: +4.5 percent

Estimated K-12 enrollment: 733,000

Highlights:

Governor’s second budget proposal contains $6 million—an increase of $2 million—to provide tutoring, mentoring, and after-school programs for high school students at risk of failing the state’s new graduation exam.

Proposed budget seeks $10 million to expand the Alabama Reading Initiative, a program aimed at helping schools improve reading instruction.

To address concerns about school safety, governor wants to spend $1.3 million to install video cameras in public schools.

ARIZONA

Governor: Jane Dee Hull (R)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $8.8 billion

FY 2001 proposed K-12 budget: $3.03 billion

FY 2000 K-12 budget: $2.78 billion

Percent change K-12 budget: +9.0 percent

Estimated K-12 enrollment: 859,000

Highlights:

Arizona is in second year of its first biennial budget. In February, legislature adjusted fiscal 2000 K-12 budget by adding $41.9 million, reflecting a nearly 5,000-student increase in enrollment and an approximately $20 million jump in transportation costs for charter schools.

Gov. Hull proposes increasing the 2001 school budget from $2.86 billion to $3.03 billion, while the legislature is offering a slightly larger increase, to $3.04 billion. Lawmakers will vote on an adjustment in February of next year.

Part of proposed 2001 budget adjustment includes an increase of $132.5 million in the state’s school-repair program. That amount was determined by the Arizona school facilities board and cannot be altered in the appropriations process.

COLORADO

Governor: Bill Owens (R)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $5.3 billion

FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $2.21 billion

FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $2.09 billion

Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +5.7 percent

Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 708,000*

Highlights:

Gov. Owens proposes $132 million increase in general-fund dollars for K-12 education. He also proposes using 25 percent of state’s tobacco-settlement money for the Read to Achieve program, geared to 3rd graders reading below grade level.

Governor says new funding will be approved only in exchange for new accountability measures for public schools, including grading schools from A to F based on state assessment results.

Alternative charter schools are being proposed for expelled and high-risk students. Mr. Owens also backs zero-tolerance policies for weapons, drugs, and violent behavior at school.

ILLINOIS

Governor: George H. Ryan (R)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $42.27 billion

FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $6.45 billion

FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $6.01 billion

Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +7.3 percent

Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 1,431,000

Highlights:

For second year in a row, governor fulfills a campaign pledge to devote more than half of all new state revenues to education; under his proposal, $528 million, or 56 percent of all new revenues, would go to pre-K-12 and postsecondary education.

Budget also includes a “career” scholarship program that would provide $1,000 for continuing vocational training to any high school graduate who wished to pursue postsecondary training, but not college.

Budget would increase spending on early-childhood initiatives by $32.5 million, to more than $200 million, and add $15 million more for extended-day programs for students needing academic enrichment, bringing that program’s budget to $28 million.

MISSOURI

Governor: Mel Carnahan (D)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $16.77 billion

FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $3.54 billion

FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $3.28 billion

Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +7.9 percent

Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 897,000

Highlights:

For fourth year in a row, governor proposes fully funding the equity-aid formula, increasing allocation from $1.78 billion in fiscal 2000 to $1.96 billion in fiscal 2001. Aid is designed to help equalize funding between poor and wealthier districts.

Mr. Carnahan recommends spending $18.1 million on the A+ Schools program in 2001, an increase from $15.4 million in 2000. The funds would be used to reward high schools that show improved academic performance and attendance rates, as well as to provide college scholarships for 5,000 selected students who graduate from those schools.

Governor also wants lawmakers to increase funding for transportation and education programs for gifted and disabled students. Under his plan, state would spend $336 million on those items in fiscal 2001, up from the current $313 million.

Mr. Carnahan is asking for a 21 percent increase in funding to provide services to special education students. If funded, the allocation would increase from $47 million this year to $57 million in 2001.

NEW MEXICO

Governor: Gary E. Johnson (R)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $5.6 billion

FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $1.66 billion

FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $1.61 billion

Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +3.1 percent

Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 311,000

Highlights:

Gov. Johnson’s proposal includes an additional $51.3 million, or 3.3 percent, in spending on schools, including money for merit-based compensation for teachers, expanded student assessment, and additional educational technology programs.

Proposal includes $16.8 million for a voucher program that would give parents a $3,000 tuition voucher to help send their children to private schools.

Governor proposes an outlay of $65.7 million for modernizing schools statewide.

Budget seeks an increase of $13 million, or 2.4 percent, for higher education.

NEW YORK

Governor: George E. Pataki (R )

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $52.4 billion

FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $12.89 billion

FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $12.53 billion

Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +2.9 percent

Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 2.9 million

Highlights:

Budget puts $25 million toward new program that would cover tuition for teachers-in-training in exchange for teaching in areas with shortages after graduation, and help teachers with temporary licenses pay the costs of preparing for permanent certification.

Another $40 million would pay for programs aimed at giving students in the primary grades extensive help—for instance, in summer school or over school breaks—to bring their reading skills up to grade level.

Proposed budget increases state money for prekindergarten programs to $120 million from current $85 million, an increase of 40 percent.

In addition to operating-aid increase of $140.7 million, Mr. Pataki proposes boosting school building aid by $210 million, or 23 percent, to a total of $1.1 billion.

OKLAHOMA

Governor: Frank Keating (R)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $5.2 billion

FY 2001 proposed pre-K-12 budget: $1.91 billion

FY 2000 pre-K-12 budget: $1.77 billion

Percent change pre-K-12 budget: +7.9 percent

Estimated pre-K-12 enrollment: 626,000

Highlights:

Gov. Keating’s budget proposal includes $7.5 million to provide high schools with $500 for each student who completes four years of study in English, science, mathematics, and social studies. Program aims to encourage schools to enroll more students in rigorous courses.

Governor wants to spend $9.1 million to expand statewide testing to include grades 4, 6, 7, and 9, adding to current tests for grades 3, 5, and 8, and required high school tests in English and U.S. history.

Another proposal would give schools $200 for each student in grades 7-9 who receives free summer school or tutoring, for which many Oklahoma schools charge a fee, as well as for each student in grades 10-12 who is eligible for free or reduced-prices lunches.

RHODE ISLAND

Governor: Lincoln Almond (R)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $ 2.3 billion

FY 2001 proposed K-12 budget: $648.50 million

FY 2000 K-12 budget: $615.65 million

Percent change K-12 budget: +5.3 percent

Estimated K-12 enrollment: 155,000

Highlights:

Governor proposes increasing state’s budget allocation for charter schools from $2.5 million a year to $3.2 million.

Budget plan includes $2.6 million to help more districts offer all-day kindergarten. Another $1 million has been included for state intervention and technical support in schools that persistently fail to meet state goals.

Mr. Almond also proposes distributing $6.7 million to districts based on their local tax effort. Plan comes after a lawsuit filed last year by 12 mostly rural or suburban municipalities alleging that the state’s efforts to equalize funding between rich and poor districts force the plaintiff communities to shoulder too much of their school costs.

VIRGINIA

Governor: James S. Gilmore (R)

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $21.18 billion

FY 2001 proposed K-12 budget: $4.02 billion

FY 2000 K-12 budget: $3.66 billion

Percent change K-12 budget: +9.8 percent

Estimated K-12 enrollment: 1.1 million

Highlights:

In first year of biennial budget for fiscal 2001 and 2002, Gov. Gilmore proposes increasing state aid to local districts by $245 million to pay for higher enrollment and teachers’ salary hikes.

Budget plan includes a $7.8 million to expand a state reading program to the 2nd and 3rd grades. Currently, the intervention program serves only kindergartners and 1st graders.

Governor proposes spending $41.6 million in fiscal 2001 for a major new technology initiative aimed at reducing the ratio of students to computers from 8-to-1 to 5-to-1 in every high school in the state by 2003.

Mr. Gilmore calls for spending $9.1 million in second year of biennial budget for a new program in which mathematics tutors would be hired to teach middle school students with identified math deficiencies.

WEST VIRGINIA

Governor: Cecil H. Underwood (R )

FY 2001 proposed state budget: $4.40 billion

FY 2001proposed K-12 budget: $1.53 billion

FY 2000 K-12 budget: $1.47 billion

Percent change K-12 budget: +4.1 percent

Estimated K-12 enrollment: 285,000

Highlights:

Governor is seeking last of three $756 increases in annual pay for teachers and other school and state government employees, which would bring their cumulative, across-the-board raise to a total of $2,268 since 1998.