The chairman of the House Education Committee says members of that panel and the Senate Education Committee have recommended increasing per-student funding of public schools by 2 to 2.4%.
State Rep. Bill Abernathy, D-Mena, said the panels met Monday to decide on a recommendation of how much money would be required to provide an adequate education to each student. Such a report is required under a state law enacted in response to a long-running school funding suit that ended in 2007.
Abernathy said the recommendation would cost an additional $60 million.
He said the adequacy determination would be sent both to the governor's office for use in developing an overall budget recommendation and to the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee, which will make budget recommendations to the two chambers.