Committee: Education Interim Committee
Author: Pad McCracken
Posted on October 29, 2018
The Education Interim Committee completed its work for the 2017-2018 Interim at its final meeting, September 12-13 in Helena. The committee will recommend nine bills to the 2019 Legislature and provide a report of its HJ 1 study. While most of the bills deal with cleaning up school funding statutes, there are also bills to increase special education funding, address school safety, and strengthen state financial aid programs. The HJ 1 report provides a summary of the committee’s work examining funding for educational programs serving students with special needs and includes several recommendations for improving programs serving gifted and talented students.
HJ 1
LC SPED – increases the special education allowable cost payment and directs a higher percentage of the payment to special education cooperatives; includes the payment with other funding components receiving inflationary adjustments
School Funding Clean-up
LC 307X - corrects drafting error in school major maintenance aid calculation (SB 307; 2017)
LC O&NG - clarifies oil and gas production tax distribution related to school districts
LC JOIN - removes irrelevant references related to special education joint boards
LC PUPL - clarifies age requirements related to the definition of pupil
LC 390X - addresses unintended consequence related to overestimated ANB increases and local taxes (HB 390; 2017)
School Safety
LC 307S - allows school district trustees to make school safety improvements the top priority in utilizing revenue from the “new” permissive levy for school major maintenance and any accompanying state major maintenance aid (SB 307, 2017)
Postsecondary Financial Aid
LC FAID - revises state financial aid programs
LC QELA - switches administration of Quality Educator Loan Assistance Program from Regents/OCHE to OPI
These committee bill drafts will be assigned official LC numbers and be trackable via the LAWS system.
Senate members who served on the committee are Tom Facey, D-Missoula; Edie McClafferty, D-Butte; Dan Salomon, R-Ronan; and Russ Tempel, R-Chester. House members are Fred Anderson, R-Great Falls; Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre; Moffie Funk, D-Helena; and Don Jones, R-Billings. The committee was chaired by Sen. McClafferty with Rep. Anderson serving as vice chair.
For more information visit the committee’s website or contact Pad McCracken, committee staff, at padmccracken@mt.gov or 406-444-3595.
