Caucus Press Release: Republican Leaders: Time to Consider "Backpacking"
Feb 15, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Republican Leaders:
Time to Consider "Backpacking"
COLUMBIA -- Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan of Clinton and House Speaker Bobby Harrell submitted a House Resolution Thursday to create a committee to study "backpacking" -- which releases schools from heavy-handed regulations about how to spend state money.
"This is a first step in reviewing a decades-old education funding system with the goal of creating more flexibility for our educators and getting more money down to the classrooms," Rep. Duncan said.
Today, state funding for schools is split into 74 different "revenue codes" which force schools to spend money on certain programs, even if a school does not need the program or if local teachers and principals believe the money can be best spent improving achievement in other areas.
"This study committee will be faced with the important task of helping our state empower students, teachers and our school administrators," Speaker Harrell said. "Our schools should be able to best serve the students they teach, and that means we need to simplify a system overburdened by bureaucracy and make it easier to help students."
The committee is charged with studying several questions including:
* How to reform the 74 funding categories currently used in the Education Finance Act,
* How to provide flexibility for school districts in spending those dollars,
* How to best use state money to educate students,
* How to expand the EFAâs weighting system to include groups not currently weighted, including gifted and talented students, special needs children, and low income children.
The committee will consist of nine members appointed by Speaker Harrell and is charged with issuing a report by January 15, 2008.
"Allowing the state's portion of educational dollars to follow the child will enable the stateâs educators to use our taxpayer dollars to produce the best results for students," Rep. Duncan said.
For More Information:
Rep. Jeff Duncan
(864) 923-3188
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Click for a PDF copy of this press release.
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