The House speaker is calling for a committee vote next week to expunge a recommendation made earlier this week for a $20 million increase in special education funding.
The call comes as some lawmakers look for a tax cut, but the funding recommendation was made in a report in which lawmakers are not allowed to consider cost to the state.
"Failure to fund that documented need is, to me, a blatant disservice to an adequate education to those kids just because they are disabled," said Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, who made the motion for the funding increase in Monday's joint meeting of the House and Senate education committees.
His motion passed with no audible dissent during the joint committee meeting, which was in the middle of considering proposals that pertain to public school funding.
The recommendation had called for a $20 million yearly increase to the "catastrophic fund," a program that reimburses schools for educating students with severe disabilities. There's currently $11 million a year placed in the fund, but it has about $30 million in eligible expenses. That leaves at least $19 million in unmet need, according to a draft report.
The committees will have another joint meeting Monday. Lawmakers on the education committees will need a two-thirds majority to expunge the vote.
Lindsey confirmed that House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, had said there would be a motion this Monday in the joint meeting to expunge the recommendation.
"I'm just dismayed that the leadership of this state is more concerned about budget numbers and tax cuts and where they want to spend the state's money -- the taxpayers' money -- as opposed of taking care of kids," Lindsey said.
He said he believed the increase in special education funding was large enough to worry tax-cut proponents.
In an interview, Gillam said that last Monday's meeting, where the vote in favor of the recommendation was held, was poorly attended and not everyone understood what they were voting on.
"There was a lot of us on the House side that were not in the room for a vote, and we would like to be in on that discussion moving forward," Gillam said. "I think there's still a discussion to be had as to whether or not this extra money is needed to fill our requirements."
He said he wanted to take the recommendation back to neutral ground to have that discussion. Tax cuts were not part of the decision to attempt to expunge the vote, though the subject is on lawmakers' minds, he said.
Budget hearings on state government spending start Tuesday and will last into November, ahead of the next meeting of the Legislature.
In the meantime, the education committees are working on an adequacy report, which pertains to needs of public schools.
Lawmakers are not allowed to consider the total cost to the state -- only the needs of students -- when compiling it. The report is the result of multiple legal challenges that went all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
House Education Committee Chairman Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs, had said the joint committees planned to issue its final adequacy report by mid-October, but in an interview Friday, he said he expected the committee to issue its report closer to the Nov. 1 deadline.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he would like to reduce taxes, but the education funding adequacy report plays a role.
"The result of the adequacy committee is extraordinarily important to the strength of education in our state, but also it has budgetary impacts," the governor said in July.
J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Hutchinson, did not return a request for comment Friday.
Metro on 10/08/2016