CSBA-backed bill would save transportation funding
Published: January 24, 2012
As part of an effort to stave off further cuts to home-to-school transportation funds that would devastate small and rural district budgets, CSBA and other members of the education community have helped craft and are working hard in support of legislation that would more equitably spread the pain by cutting general fund revenues to districts and county offices of education.
As part of the midyear budget trigger that was pulled Dec. 15, $248 million in current-year transportation funding was eliminated—a cut critics say is inequitable because it would mean huge per-pupil cuts to some urban and small and rural districts.
Supporters say that Senate Bill 81 represents a more equitable way to spread the budget-cut pain across all districts and county offices. The bill would impose an across-the-board cut in revenue-limit funds to Local Education Agencies—a reduction of about $42 per pupil.
CSBA has been instrumental in the effort to alert the governor and other key policy makers about the inequity of the proposed transportation cut and has compiled detailed information about the impact of the cuts on every LEA in the state—numbers that have provided a basis for a number of news stories about the issue.
“With some categorical funds you can lose the money and chose not to offer the service,” said CSBA President Jill Wynns. “But districts can’t stop offering transportation. It’s inequitable. ”
CSBA Assistant Executive Director Dennis Myers said CSBA has long opposed cuts to specific categorical programs like transportation because there’s no fair way to spread the pain. “If schools are forced to take cuts, CSBA has agreed with others in the education community that the only equitable way is to do so is through the revenue limit. The education community has rallied around this as an issue.”