House education budget writers are proposing an extra 100-million dollars over the governor’s proposed billion-dollar education budget increase. Lynn Hatter reports the Senate took up both recommendation’s Thursday and are considering adding even more money to fund the state’s public schools.
Senator David Simmons is his chamber’s point person for writing a preK-12 education proposal. The Maitland Republican praised both the governor and the House’s education spending plans—which increase overall education funding by a billion dollars. But Simmons’ says those increases still aren’t enough to bring funding in line with where it was the year before.
“They are approximately $300 million shy of overall an even funding for education.”
The Senate has not yet released any budget allocations for the upcoming fiscal year. And the increase in education comes as the state confronts a multi-billion dollar overall budget shortfall. Simmons says he believes those estimates may be a bit pessimistic.
