The Joint Budget Committee on Thursday balked at a proposal to increase the spending authority for the special- education catastrophic fund by $3 million, from the current $13 million, in the coming fiscal year.
Rep. Michael John Gray, D-Augusta, proposed an amendment to Senate Bill 33 to increase the fund to $16 million. SB33 is the state Department of Education's fiscal 2019 appropriation for grants and local aid to school districts and special programs.
He said the fund is available to school districts for students with individualized education plans. Those students have needs that are an extremely high cost to the district and districts don't have the option of not providing services to these children, he said.
Gray said the demonstrated financial need that school districts have shown to the state Department of Education is about $27 million, "so even at $13 [million], we are still only funding the schools at less than 50 cents on the dollar, and basically leaving them a $13 million unfunded mandate."
The Legislature increased the funding by $2 million last year, Gray said.
-- Michael R. Wickline
