House Budget Matches Gov. Scott’s $1 Billion School Request

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The House has met Gov. Rick Scott's challenge to add $1 billion for K-12.

The Florida House is proposing a budget that would match Gov. Rick Scott’s goal of adding $1 billion for K-12 education, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said adding the money won’t be easy, but the state’s economy is improving. From Cannon’s press release:

We have endeavored to prioritize the most essential functions of state government. I want to specifically draw your attention to public school funding. Enrollment in our public schools has increased while local school revenues have sharply decreased. These two factors alone create a shortfall of nearly half a billion dollars.

Our analysis and prioritization with respect to K-12 education funding mirror those of Governor Scott. We have funded K-12 with an allocation exceeding $1 billion in new state funding to the Florida Education Finance Program. This addresses all of the shortfalls in K-12 education and also provides an increase in per student funding of 2.27 percent.

The Senate is now on the clock for their proposal. The body has floated the idea of recessing for several weeks to see if the state’s budget situation changes.