Foundation Budget Review Commission Recommendations

What it means

A proposed amendment to the Senate's fiscal year 2018 budget that rewrites the state's school funding formula (Chapter 70) using the Foundation Budget Review Commission's recommendations. It sets new per-student rates for foundation budget categories, including an English learner increment of $2,387.20 per student and a low-income increment of $3,816.90 to $8,269.79 per student depending on a district's share of low-income students (family income at or below 185 per cent of the federal poverty level), plus changes to employee health benefit, special education, and guidance and psychological costs. The rates take effect as a base in fiscal year 2018 and are adjusted for inflation after that, with a phase-in schedule to be put before the Legislature each year by February 15, subject to appropriation. It also has the state education department convene a data advisory committee to help set up a system that tracks spending on English learner and low-income students.

Source: official text and history of S.2149 on malegislature.gov.