Though far, far away at this point -- news travels. The Governor has signed the budget though he has imposed a vast number of "line-item vetoes." Fortunately, it seems that he has NOT touched the education funding any further than what was originally proposed. A key part of the package for us is the flexibility of the IM (Instructional Materials -- textbooks) funds. This will allow us to divert these funds back to more basic classroom needs. At the same time, it should be clear that all students will have textbooks (that has NOT changed). The only thing changing here is that there will be no requirement to adopt NEW books in the next couple of years.
While I am sure that the commentary on the line-item veto will continue to be debated it is important to understand the complexity of our current system and why it is so difficult to make it work -- starting with the over-reliance on personal income (e.g., 1% of the population is currently responsible for 50% of the funding). While not pretty we do have a budget -- at least for a few more months.
Thank you for the on-going updates on the budget. Since there is no requirement to adopt new textbooks, how will the money be expended? Will any of the money go to athletic facilities upgrades? Can you define more basic classroom needs?
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