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Panel proposes boosting school transportation funding Thursday, Aug 7, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A legislative subcommittee reviewing school funding voted Wednesday to recommend the Legislature set aside $24 million annually over the next two fiscal years to help schools cope with high gas prices. The Joint Adequacy Evaluation Oversight Subcommittee said it would recommend that "enhanced transportation funding" be distributed among school districts according to a statistical model to be developed by the Bureau of Legislative Research and approved by the Legislature. Districts also would continue to receive the $286 per student they now receive for transportation. The model could take into account factors that vary from district to district such as bus route miles, lawmakers said. Districts now receive transportation funding on a per-student basis only, which results in some districts being underfunded and some being overfunded, said Rep. Bill Abernathy, D-Mena, House chairman of the subcommittee. "We have school districts that transport 90 percent ... of their student body and districts that transport 10 percent of the student body, and each of them gets $286 per student," Abernathy said. He said high gas prices are already causing problems for school districts, though the enhanced funding would not become available until the 2009-2010 school year. "Whatever we do now, school districts are going through this next year without any additional money, so they're going to be hurting," he said. The subcommittee adopted the recommendation in a voice vote. Sen. Jimmy Jeffress, D-Crossett, said the $24 million figure is based on preliminary research and is intended "to get the ball rolling." Further research may show that another figure would be more appropriate, he said. Sen. Dave Bisbee, R-Rogers, who voted against the motion, said he objected to appropriating some transportation money on a per-student basis and some according to need. No other funding is appropriated that way, he said. "That's a very, very poor road to go down. Just because you're trying to fix a problem doesn't mean the fix is good," he said. The motion, made by Abernathy, included a statement that further research would be done "to determine the amount of funding that is needed for adequacy." Bisbee objected to that part of the motion, noting that transportation has never been ruled by a court to be part of the Legislature's constitutional mandate to provide the means for an adequate education. "I don't think that's something we want to do with a simple motion in this committee," he said. Abernathy said transportation funding siphons money away from other areas of education and therefore cannot be separated from adequacy. In June the subcommittee voted to recommend a range of cost-of-living adjustments of between 1.6 percent to 2.8 percent for school salaries. At that meeting the panel also debated recommending an increase in funding for teachers' health insurance but voted instead to refer the matter to the House and Senate education committees. The subcommittee is scheduled to present a report and recommendations on educational adequacy to the education committees next Tuesday. |
