RSAI Call to Action Set Per Pupil Costs this Session for FY 2015-16

RSAI Call to Action

Set Per Pupil Costs this Session for FY 2015-16

The Issue:  The legislature should follow the law which requires setting the cost per pupil within 30 days of the release of the governor’s budget (deadline passed Feb. 13).  RSAI is calling for action this session to set the per pupil cost for FY 2015-16.

Old News:   The Senate passed bills to increase the state cost per pupil by 6% for 2015-16 (SF 2079), same rate for categorical funds (SF 2077) and a bill to make permanent the property tax replacement payments (SF 2078).  This bill died in the House Education Committee due to funnel date rules.  House leaders have indicated they do not plan take up this conversation this year. Instead the House passed HF 2194, approved 53-43 on Feb. 13. This bill would change when the state cost per pupil would be set.  On March 12, the Senate Education Committee recommended changes to this bill, with a strike-after amendment which completely rewrites the bill as a 6% increase in the cost per pupil for 2015-16.  This bill did survive the funnel date with yesterday’s  Committee approval.

Please lobby from home, send emails or call the House or Senate Switchboard on Thursday March 13, Friday March 14 and through the weekend:

TALKING POINTS:  This legislature must set the 2015-16 cost per pupil during this session.

·         Iowa ranks 37^th in the nation in per pupil funding, more than $1,500 below the national average per student in expenditures.  Our schools haven’t recovered from the economic downturn and record low funding rates of the last several years.

·         Iowa’s economy is strong, state coffers are full. Although we can never be certain about the future, we are certainly well positioned to sustain any significant economic challenge in the next several years.

·         It’s the law – Iowa Code requires legislative action within 30 days of the governor’s budget.  That deadline passed over a month ago. Here’s why this current process should not be changed:

1.       History proves it’s hard to meet the 30 days in the out year, with no other competing budget issues on the table.  It won’t get easier next year with other interests competing for resources.

2.       Despite good intentions of well-meaning legislators, schools have no confidence that the 30-day deadline is attainable, any more with the proposed law change of two-year-budgeting than currently.

3.       But even if they could set the cost per pupil in 30 days, that’s not enough time for good planning.  Schools have been working on budgets, analyzing staffing needs to meet student needs, planning for Education Reform changes in staffing, and negotiating with teachers  and other staff for months now, because the per pupil rate beginning July 1, 2014 is known.  School timelines require more than 30-days-notice to be good stewards of over $4 billion in combined state and local funds. 

·         Education is the priority and worthy of action within the timelines set in current law.  If this legislature can plan ahead to meet property tax reductions over several years, it can plan ahead to adequately fund schools.

Cedar Rapids Gazette editorial on why the legislature should follow the law and set school funding for the FY 2016 fiscal year in the 2014 session.  Read it, share it, send it to your legislators and others.   http://thegazette.com/2014/02/06/lawmakers-should-follow-laws/   The editorial explains why education funding should be set before the rest of the budget:

•         “The not quite 20-year-old state law directs the Legislature to set state per-pupil funding two years in advance, and within 30 days of receiving a governor’s budget. The goals are pretty simple. Make school funding a top priority, give school districts ample time to plan ahead and make it less likely that critical school bucks will get tangled up in all the budgetary horse-trading that happens late in a session.” 

Thank the Senate for their action on 6% and ask all of your legislators and the Governor to follow the law and prioritize the funding of education.  Access the Education Coalition Funding Fact of the Week or additional background and answers to objections we’ve heard to setting the per pupil cost this year.

03/10/2014 - Ending Balances and Revenues

03/03/2014 - It's All About the Timing

02/24/2014 - Education as a Percent of the State Budget: A Measure of Priority

02/17/2014 - Across the Board History and Rationale for a Timely School Funding Decision

02/10/2014 - Timing / Affordability of Adequate Education Funding and NAEP Rankings

02/03/2014 - Iowa's Per Pupil Expenditures

01/27/2014 - Growth in English-language Learner Students Not Supported by Iowa Funding Levels

01/20/2014 - Special Education Deficits

01/13/2014 - Student need is increasing while funding lags: The Poverty Example

01/6/2014 - Iowa expenditures per pupil lag the nation

Subscribe for the Education Coalition funding fact of the week here:
http://ia-sb.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e0acb6236d9a5dbd136a38ef4&id=815d3aa83c 

Parents, grandparents, staff and neighbors, you can help!

Call or email Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Reynolds and your legislators and leave a message that schools need sufficient school funding, at least 6% per pupil, determined this session.  

Office of the Governor:  State Capitol | 1007 East Grand Ave. | Des Moines, Iowa 50319, Phone: 515.281.5211 | Contact Us  (https://governor.iowa.gov/contact/)

To reach members of the  Iowa House and Senate:.

·         Find your legislator here:  https://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx

·         Email your legislators. You’re welcome to use the sample provided below on page 3. The correct email address configuration is:  firstname.lastname@legis.iowa.gov

·         Call the House Switchboard. Leave a message for your representative at 515.281.3221

·         Call the Senate Switchboard. Leave a message for your senator at 515.281.3371

Write a letter to your local newspaper explaining the information above in this call to action or sharing details from one of the education coalition funding facts of the week. 

SAMPLE E-MAIL/LETTER TEXT

(please personalize as much as you’d like)

Dear [ Sen. Or Rep. _________] or

Dear Governor Branstad and Lt. Governor Reynolds,

As a [tax payer, parent, grandparent] I have been following the discussions concerning education during this 2014 legislative session. I share and believe in the commitment to ensuring that every child has access to a high quality education. However, I have serious concerns about the impact of delaying education funding decisions until next year on my child's school and our community.

The idea that the legislature wait until just months before the beginning of the school year to decide on funding  jeopardizes school programs, puts schools at risk of additional lay-offs, increases class sizes, and further hampers schools’ abilities to meet the needs of all students.  Although the legislature can refuse to follow the law and set school funding within 30 days of the governor’s budget release, schools must follow the law, subject to strict state deadlines - school budgets need stability and predictability. We also know the costs of delivering education continue to grow while school budgets have remained on a starvation diet for several years and the full impact of previous underfunding is still being discovered.  Iowa now ranks 37^th in the nation in per pupil expenditures.  Our students need us to do better.

The education reform agenda will take several years to be defined and implemented.  We need Iowa schools to be adequately funded in the meantime. We know the State has the capacity to do so.  As an Iowa tax payer, I am asking that this happens through funding education with an adequate per pupil growth rate of at least 6% for the 2015-16 school year.

The bottom line is that education is an investment – not only in education itself, but also in our economic and workforce development and the future success of our children and our state.

Thank you for your time and consideration as well as your commitment to Iowa’s children.

Sincerely,

[Your Name and Contact Information]

March 13, 2014 School Funding Advocacy Needed

March 13, 2014

School Funding Advocacy Needed

Please contact me with any questions, Margaret.buckton@isfis.net (515) 201-3755.  

Advocacy Plan:  Lobby from home day, Thursday, March 13 (Friday and through the weekend):  Set the state cost per pupil for FY 2016 before this legislature adjourns.

The Education Coalition (UEN, IASB, AEAs of Iowa, SAI and ISEA) is planning a “lobby from home” day next week to generate many phone and email contacts before people head off to Spring Break and before the legislature starts to wind down.  Send email and make phone calls striving for three contacts per advocate (more if your district is represented by several legislators).  Use a pyramid model where each advocate encourages another to also contact their legislators and the governor. Turn your grassroots and parent groups loose.  Use the RSAI call to action, Mar. 13, which includes a sample letter from parent to legislator to get started. School Funding Decision Needed Now (w/parent letter) found on the RSAI legislative web page

Contact information:

Call or email Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Reynolds and your legislators and leave a message:  schools need sufficient school funding, at least 6% per pupil for the 2015-16 school year, determined this session.  

·         Office of the Governor: State Capitol | 1007 East Grand Ave. | Des Moines, Iowa 50319, Phone: 515.281.5211 | Contact Us (https://governor.iowa.gov/contact/)

·         To reach members of the Iowa House and Senate:.

o   Find your legislator here: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx 

o   Email your legislators. The correct email address configuration is: firstname.lastname@legis.iowa.gov and can be verified at the above link.

o   Call the Switchboard. Leave a message for your representative at 515.281.3221 or for your senator at 515.281.3371

·         Write a letter to your local newspaper explaining the information above in this call to action or sharing details from one of the education coalition funding facts of the week.

·

Appropriations Progress:  none to report following last week’s release of budget targets.  The two Education Appropriations Subcommittee meetings scheduled for this week were cancelled.  Starting points for discussion on various line items in the education budget are under development in both chambers.  Perhaps a bill will be introduced next week.  

Funnel Deadline:  March 14 (Friday this week) is the next official funnel deadline by which bills must be approved by committee in the other chamber rather than their chamber of origin in order to move forward (Senate files approved by House Committees and House files approved by Senate Committees.)  Appropriations, ways and means (tax policy) and leadership bills are exempt from the funnel deadlines.  Remember that any dead bill may show up as an amendment in another bill to which it is topical (germane), as part of an appropriations bill or if the body agrees, by suspension of the rules.  No further House or Senate Education Committee meetings are posted this week, so we don’t anticipate additional bills will move before Friday’s deadline.  The following bills received floor consideration this week:

Senate Committee Action

•         HF 2194 Procedure change for setting cost per pupil:  Senate Education Committee recommended amendment S-5059 to replace the language in this bill (known as a strike-after amendment since all words in the bill after the enactment clause are replaced with the words in the amendment).  The amendment sets a 6% increase in the state cost per pupil for the 2015-16 school year. This action keeps the conversation alive since previous Senate bills to set 6% did not get out of the House Education Committee, thus did not survive the funnel.  The Committee heard testimony from Superintendents Stan Rheingans (Dubuque), Greg Darling (Humboldt and Twin Rivers) and Tim Taylor with SBO Karen Shimp (Ames), explaining the consequences to schools of delaying the decision until next session.  See the March 13 Education Funding Call to Action for talking points to contact your legislators.  This bill moves to the Senate Calendar with amendment recommended. 

•         HF 2388 defines a process for an AEA liaison for foster care, if one exists at the AEA, to help navigate the transition for students in foster care from one district to another. There is neither a mandate for AEAs to hire this position nor funding to pay for it if they did.  This bill moves to the Senate Calendar. 

•          HF 2389 requires the BOEE to include in educators ethics and code of conduct a prohibition of sexual or romantic relationship between a licensed staff member and a student they taught or supervised (ie., coached) for at least 90 days after the student graduates or leaves the school. 

•          SF 2318 Anti-Bullying/Safe Schools Bill was amended by S-5060 and approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The amendment places professional development requirements in the district or attendance center plan rather than in the teacher’s individual PD plan,, made several references to outcomes based training in addition to the research-based phrase in the original bill, and made several other mostly technical changes.  The bill moves to the Senate Appropriations Calendar (immune from funnel dates.)

House Committee Action

SF 2319 Defining Dyslexia was approved by the House Education Committee on March 12. The bill, as amended by amendment H-8115 requires the Reading Research Center to work with the DE and AEAs to provide no cost professional development to early elementary teachers to improve skills of all students in reading, conditional on an appropriation in the budget.  The bill requires districts provide assistance to students to include but not be limited to strategies that formally address dyslexia, when appropriate and defines dyslexia as a specific and significant impairment in the development of reading, including but not limited to phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, that is not solely accounted for by intellectual disability, sensory disability or impairment, or lack of appropriate instruction. The bill moves to the House floor with recommended amendment.

SF 366 Radon Testing and Mitigation:  was amended by H-8114 and approved by the House Local Government Committee. The amendment removes requirements for school districts to test or mitigate and instead requires the DE to send information to public and nonpublic schools about dangers of radon, requires districts and nonpublic schools to report to the DE by year end activities regarding mitigation and testing.  The DE is required report to the General Assembly next year on status of schools actions reported. 

House Floor Action

HF 2439 Student Data and References to Iowa Common Core.  This bill changes Iowa Code references in current law to the Iowa Common Core to remove the word “common” , replaced with Iowa Core Content Standards. The bill allows a district to administer a different assessment to students but the assessment is prohibited from replacing the existing Iowa assessments.   The bill also states legislative intent:  “The Iowa core content standards shall not dictate curriculum or prescribe a particular method of instruction to school districts and accredited nonpublic schools. . . .It is the intent of the general assembly that selection and implementation of curriculum, textbooks, educational materials, and instructional methods remain with school districts and accredited nonpublic schools and not with the state or federal government.”  The bill requires the DE to set up a process to solicit public comment, to maintain a website through which the public can access the core content standards and requires regular review of public input by the state board of education. The bill also prohibits the DE or State Board of Education from changing the Iowa Core Content Standards without first submitting an annual report to the legislature, and creates a new Code section regarding student data policies, procedures and plans.  The bill moves to the Senate Education Committee, but without that committee meeting again, will die due to the funnel deadline. 

School Funding:  Background on prior action and bill numbers: the Senate approved and sent to the House, the following bills still assigned to the House Education Committee. There has been no indication that the House will take up this conversation this year.

•         SF 2079:  Sets 6% increase to the state cost per pupil (formerly known as allowable growth) for FY 2016, passed on partisan vote all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed. 

•         SF 2077:  Sets 6% growth for categorical supplements (PD, TSS and early intervention/class size) for FY 2016, passed on partisan vote all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed. 

•         SF 2078: Property Tax Replacement Payments:  makes permanent the state’s replacement of the property tax impact of allowable growth/state supplemental assistance, passed unanimously (49-0).  

Timing:  House bill HF 2194, approved 53-43 on Feb. 14 in the Iowa House, changes when the state cost per pupil would be set

•         Currently, Iowa Code 257.8 requires state cost per pupil and categorical fund percent increases to be set within 30 days of the governor’s budget for the out year (Feb. 13, 2014 is deadline to set July 1, 2015 rate)

•         In odd numbered years, state cost per pupil for the upcoming July 1 and the out year are both set.  The legislature wouldn’t act in the even numbered year

•         Democrats in the floor debate quoted school superintendents responding to a survey in which 98% said the funding decision should not be delayed to next Session.  They talked about the timelines required to set a quick budget, the difficulty with scenario planning, and suggested the legislature should follow the law.

Education Coalition Joint Advocacy:  Thanks to ISEA, IASB, SAI, UEN and Iowa AEAs for this collaborative effort!

Funding fact of the week:  the coalition is preparing a weekly funding fact to generate local conversations and fuel the enthusiasm for setting the state percent of growth during the 2014 Session. The first issue detailed Iowa’s 37^th in the nation ranking in total per pupil expenditures, now $1,514 below the national average.  Prior issues are linked on the UEN legislative page, here’s the link to this week’s publication on ending balances and revenues: 

03/10/2014 - Ending Balances and Revenues

Sign up to receive the Education Funding fact of the week here:  http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=e0acb6236d9a5dbd136a38ef4&id=815d3aa83c

RSAI Legislative Update

March 3, 2014

Floor Work Continues after the First Funnel

Please contact me with any questions, Margaret.buckton@isfis.net (515) 201-3755.  

Advocacy Plan:  Lobby from home day next Thursday, March 13:  Set the state cost per pupil for FY 2016 before the legislature adjourns this Session.

The Education Coalition (UEN, IASB, AEAs of Iowa, SAI and ISEA) is planning a “lobby from home” day next week to generate many phone and email contacts before people head off to Spring Break and before the legislature starts to wind down.  Send email and make phone calls striving for three contacts per advocate (more if your district is represented by several legislators).  Use a pyramid model where each advocate encourages another to also contact their legislators and the governor. Turn your grassroots and parent groups loose.  Use the UEN call to action, Feb. 14, which includes a sample letter from parent to legislator to get started. School Funding Decision Needed Now (w/parent letter) http://www.uen-ia.org/attachments/call%20to%20action/Call%20to%20Action%20School%20Funding%20template%20along%20with%20parent%20letter.pdf

Contact information:

Call or email Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Reynolds and your legislators and leave a message:  schools need sufficient school funding, at least 6% per pupil for the 2015-16 school year, determined this session.   

·         Office of the Governor: State Capitol | 1007 East Grand Ave. | Des Moines, Iowa 50319, Phone: 515.281.5211 | Contact Us (https://governor.iowa.gov/contact/)

·         To reach members of the Iowa House and Senate:.

o   Find your legislator here: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx  

o   Email your legislators. The correct email address configuration is: firstname.lastname@legis.iowa.gov and can be verified at the above link.

o   Call the Switchboard. Leave a message for your representative at 515.281.3221 or for your senator at 515.281.3371

·         Write a letter to your local newspaper explaining the information above in this call to action or sharing details from one of the education coalition funding facts of the week.

·

Joint Budget Targets:  Unprecedented to have joint targets with Republicans in charge of the House and Democrats in charge of the Senate, indicating serious work toward April adjournment.  Joint budget targets were released yesterday. House and Senate leaders agree on FY 2015 general fund budget of $6.92 billion, $29 million below the Governor’s budget recommendation and $430 million more than FY 2014.  These targets have nothing to do with 6% cost per pupil increase in FY 2016.  These targets do include the 4% cost per pupil increase set last year for FY 2015.  The Education Appropriations Subcommittee met briefly this morning to share the target, then went to caucus.  They anticipate a bill with line item appropriations no sooner than the week of March 17.  The Education budget includes several line items, among them DE administration, Iowa Core, community colleges, early reading implementation, and many others, but the state aid/supplemental state assistance is appropriated in the Unassigned Standings appropriations bill. 

	FY 2014 Estimated Spending	Governor’s FY 2015 Recommendation	Joint Legislative Targets FY 2015
Education	$716.42 million	$716.42 million	$716.42 million
Unassigned Standings	$2.991 billion	$3.283 billion	$3.259 billion
Total State General Fund	$6.492 billion	$7.001 billion	$6.972 billion

Funnel Deadline:  March 14 is the next official funnel deadline by which bills must be approved by committee in the other chamber rather than their chamber of origin in order to move forward (Senate files approved by House Committees and House files approved by Senate Committees.)  Appropriations, ways and means (tax policy) and leadership bills are exempt from the funnel deadlines.  Remember that any dead bill may show up as an amendment in another bill to which it is topical (germane), as part of an appropriations bill or if the body agrees, by suspension of the rules.  The following bills received floor consideration this week:

Senate Action

•         SF 2129: authorizing the establishment of a philanthropy account within an agency fund established by a school corporation. (Formerly SF 2006.)  Passed ayes 35, nays 13. To House Education Committee.

•         SF 2285: establishing an Iowa healthiest children initiative in the DPH, with recommendations due Dec. 15, 2014. (Formerly SF 2144.)  Passed ayes 48, nays 0.

•         SF 2286: Fine arts standards task force would recommend inclusion of fine arts standards in academic standards, report due Jan. 2015, Passed, 42-7.

•         SF 2262:  Radon testing in public schools, must test by June 30, 2016 and at least every 10 years after and following construction, repairs, no requirement (yet) to mitigate. Passed, 35-14.  The fiscal note written about this bill states:  Based on information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the cost of testing schools by radon professionals may range up to $1,500 for an entire building. The DE reports that in some cases, a radon test kit may be implemented by a licensed professional at a cost of $30 per room. Cost of radon mitigation will vary, and may range between $5,000 and $15,000 (although not mandated by the bill).  Additionally, in some cases, ventilation adjustments can lead to radon reduction.

House Action

•         HF 2388 Foster Care Education: Encourages the AEA to hire a foster care liaison to assist schools with transfer of foster care children (dealing with transfer of credits, transition planning, coordinating information and other services.)  Requires schools to work with the liaison if the AEA has one. Amended and passed 99:0.  Goes to the Senate Education Committee.

•         HF 2389 Teacher Sexual Misconduct: Requires BOEE to adopt rules that allow BOEE to suspend or revoke the license or otherwise discipline a teacher who solicits or engages in sex with a person who was their student within the prior 90 days.   Goes to the Senate Education Committee. 

•         SF 2056: WGS incentives: extends WGS/reorganization incentives to 2019, for up to three years for WGS and 3 years following a reorg. Fiscal impact is estimated at $1.6 million. Approved 49:0. Goes to the Senate Education Committee. 

•         SF 2230:  DE Code Corrections passed 98:0 (amended bill to match the senate version, so goes back to Senate, then to the governor.)  The bill specifies data reporting requirements for the DE related to core academic indicators, changes references to modified allowable growth to correspond with new concept of state supplemental aid to schools, now referring to the term as “modified supplemental amount”  for school districts and AEAs, replaces a reference to a now nonexistent organization  (north central association of colleges and schools) with a reference to a higher learning commission, allows for a reorganization petition to include a vote on a revenue purpose statement for sales tax revenue to be voted on at the reorganization election, reinstates the state board of education’s authority to adopt rules to administer teacher mentoring and induction, requires proceeds from sales of funds be deposited into the fund from which the property was originally purchased and provides for sale or disposition of real property to be deposited into the PPEL if the original fund of purchase is unknown and proceeds from sale of any property other than real property into the general fund.  Also requires that proceeds from sale of student constructed-structures reimburse the program but if the board discontinues the program, funds would go to the general fund. 

School Funding:  No change from last week’s report: the Senate approved and sent to the House, the following bills still assigned to the House Education Committee with Subcommittee members Jorgensen, Forristall, and Steckman. Subcommittee meetings have not been scheduled and there has been no indication that the House will take up this conversation this year. Look to the UEN CALL TO ACTION Feb. 14, 2014 to help school leaders and parents connect with House members and the governor to prioritize school funding and move these bills. A template for a letter from parents or citizens is included with the call to action.

•         SF 2079:  Sets 6% increase to the state cost per pupil (formerly known as allowable growth) for FY 2016, passed on partisan vote all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed. 

•         SF 2077:  Sets 6% growth for categorical supplements (PD, TSS and early intervention/class size) for FY 2016, passed on partisan vote all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed. 

•         SF 2078: Property Tax Replacement Payments:  makes permanent the state’s replacement of the property tax impact of allowable growth/state supplemental assistance, passed unanimously (49-0).   

Timing:  House bill HF 2194, approved 53-43 on Feb. 14 in the Iowa House, changes when the state cost per pupil would be set:

•         Currently, Iowa Code 257.8 requires state cost per pupil and categorical fund percent increases to be set within 30 days of the governor’s budget for the out year (Feb. 13, 2014 is deadline to set July 1, 2015 rate)

•         In odd numbered years, state cost per pupil for the upcoming July 1 and the out year are both set.  The legislature wouldn’t act in the even numbered year

•         Democrats in the floor debate quoted school superintendents responding to a survey in which 98% said the funding decision should not be delayed to next Session.  They talked about the timelines required to set a quick budget, the difficulty with scenario planning, and suggested the legislature should follow the law.

Education Coalition Joint Advocacy:  Thanks to ISEA, IASB, SAI, Iowa AEAs and UEN for working in this collaborative effort!

·         Funding fact of the week:  the coalition is preparing a weekly funding fact to generate local conversations and fuel the enthusiasm for setting the state percent of growth during the 2014 Session. The first issue detailed Iowa’s 37^th in the nation ranking in total per pupil expenditures, now $1,514 below the national average.  Prior issues are linked on the UEN legislative page, or you can access via the links and titles here:
03/03/2014 - It's All About the Timing

02/24/2014 - Education as a Percent of the State Budget: A Measure of Priority

02/17/2014 - Across the Board History and Rationale for a Timely School Funding Decision

02/10/2014 - Timing / Affordability of Adequate Education Funding and NAEP Rankings

02/03/2014 - Iowa's Per Pupil Expenditures

01/27/2014 - Growth in English-language Learner Students Not Supported by Iowa Funding Levels

01/20/2014 - Special Education Deficits

01/13/2014 - Student need is increasing while funding lags: The Poverty Example

01/6/2014 - Iowa expenditures per pupil lag the nation

·       

  Sign up to received the Education Funding fact of the week here:  http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=e0acb6236d9a5dbd136a38ef4&id=815d3aa83c

Cedar Rapids Gazette editorial on why the legislature should follow the law and set school funding for the FY 2016 fiscal year in the 2014 session.  It’s a great editorial – read it, share it, send it to your legislators and others.   http://thegazette.com/2014/02/06/lawmakers-should-follow-laws/   The editorial explains why education funding should be set before the rest of the budget:

“The not quite 20-year-old state law directs the Legislature to set state per-pupil funding two years in advance, and within 30 days of receiving a governor’s budget. The goals are pretty simple. Make school funding a top priority, give school districts ample time to plan ahead and make it less likely that critical school bucks will get tangled up in all the budgetary horse-trading that happens late in a session.” 

They also explain what happens when it’s not set timely:  “This is not the path to the world class schools the governor says we should have. Districts are far less likely to try transformative initiatives and launch innovative programs if their budgetary visibility is reduced to just a few months. Uncertainty encourages districts to hunker down and cling to the status quo.”