State Senator Stacey Donato announced Friday that there are a number of unprecedented topics for the General Assembly to tackle this legislative session in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but one of the biggest is funding for K-12 education.
Under current law, public schools receive 85% of the per-student state funding for any student who receives at least half of their education virtually. Given the circumstances of the past year, this would not be fair to the teachers, students and administrators in our education system that had to transition from in-class to remote learning.
To address this, I voted in favor of Senate Enrolled Act 2, which would provide 100% of the state’s per-student funding for students at brick-and-mortar public schools who have gone to virtual instruction for part or all of the 2020-2021 academic year, so long as those students weren’t already learning virtually prior to COVID-19.
I believe this one-year fix is an important step in supporting our schools as they navigate the ever-changing circumstances of the pandemic.
This week, SEA 2 passed out of the General Assembly and now moves to Governor Holcomb for final consideration.
