Yesterday morning the Senate Committee on Education and
Health reported and referred the Senate version of the Governor’s takeover
legislation to the Senate Finance Committee. Last evening that committee
reported the bill with “the clause” tacked on it. The “clause” is a
provision that makes legislation effective only if there are funds to pay for
it. Several members of both the Education and Health and Finance
Committees expressed some concern over the sweeping nature of the bill and
placed the “clause” on it to ensure that it would still be revised. This
morning the House version of the bill was before the House Appropriations
subcommittee on Public Education. Yet another version (the fourth at last
count with a promise of more versions to come) was introduced. It made
clear that if the state takes over poorly performing schools, not only will the
federal and state funds follow the student, but all local funds, including aspirational
funding, would follow the student as well. The full Appropriations
Committee is expected to report the bill at its meeting this afternoon.
This takeover bill is perhaps the most intrusive piece of legislation K-12
education has ever faced.
