Gray Rohrer
Teachers could see a pay raise and PreK-12 schools would get more funds for exceptional students under a House budget plan released by the House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee.
The plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, puts $28.4 billion towards PreK-12 schools, including $22.5 billion that’s part of the Florida Education Funding Program (FEFP), the main formula for funding schools. That would be an increase of $1.5 billion, or 7%, on the current year FEFP. It represents $8,936 per student, or $217.50 more than the current year.
Most of the increase, about $1.27 billion, is dedicated to the base student allocation, which school districts have the most discretion to spend.
Other parts of the FEFP are for items the districts must spend on specific items. For instance, the House plan includes $1.25 billion to pad teacher pay, an increase of $202 million on the current year, and $1.31 billion for Exceptional Student Education (ESE) funds, or $100.5 million better than the current budget.
In higher education, the House plan has $1.5 billion for state colleges and $4.3 billion for the state university system. That includes $350 million for performance-based funding, $50 million for “pre-eminent research universities” and $25 million for a cybersecurity initiative at the University of South Florida.
There’s also $616.9 million for the Bright Futures Scholarship program, a merit-based scholarship for Florida students, a $26.2 million increase on the current budget.
The plan also has $2 million for the Board of Governors for litigation expenses. The state is fighting a lawsuit brought by New College of Florida professors and students against a law passed last year banning funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs. A federal judge allowed the case to move forward without blocking the law last November.
The House is unveiling each section of the budget Wednesday, but the full text of the proposal won’t be released until Friday. The Senate is following the same schedule for its spending proposal, but its education spending plan is set to be released later Wednesday afternoon.
Each chamber is expected to pass the full budget plans out of their respective appropriation committees next week before a floor vote the following week. Then they’ll have until March 8, the last scheduled day of the Regular Session, to hash out the differences between the bills.
3 comments
Holly Bullard
January 25, 2024 at 10:01 am
“The plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, puts $28.4 billion towards PreK-12 schools, including $22.5 billion that’s part of the Florida Education Funding Program (FEFP), the main formula for funding schools. That would be an increase of $1.5 billion, or 7%, on the current year FEFP. It represents $8,936 per student, or $217.50 more than the current year.
Most of the increase, about $1.27 billion, is dedicated to the base student allocation, which school districts have the most discretion to spend.”
Look at this evidence of the GOP continuing to defund public schools, right Florida Dems? You’re gonna keep lying about it anyway, right? Because that’s what you always do.
John J. Thomas
January 26, 2024 at 11:55 am
Hey Holly, per chance do you have a computer search engine or does your brain run on your own opinions? Florida ranks 4th in GDP and near last in per pupil spending with Mississippi, Utah, and Arizona. As a Republican for over 40 years who should be bad at tech at least my generation was taught to do our research first. Can we all be the smarter party then the libs and research our facts first before running our mouths and key boards? Maybe you are a product of the Florida school system. 🙂
Tom Johnmas
January 26, 2024 at 3:46 pm
John, please directly answer the following questions
-Is $28.4 billion dollars not enough to educate Florida’s public school students?
-Is $1.5 billion more dollars than the last fiscal year not enough of an increase to Florida’s public education system?
-If the answer to those questions is no, what is your number? What number will be sufficient for you to guarantee the successful education of every child in Florida’s public schools?
-How would you pay for your fully funded number? The state is obligated in the constitution to pass a balanced budget that takes on no debt and has no state income tax. Where would you cut from? Health care? Roads? Pensions?
-How come Florida’s public education system performs as good or better than states like New York or New Jersey that are paying $15k-$20k or more per pupil for the same or worse results? So we should just double per-pupil funding to match those states and spend tens of billions of dollars to get the same results? That seems like a good idea to you?
Try to be able to answer any of these questions coherently before you try to pop your mouth off with insults as if you’ve got anything interesting to say whatsoever
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