More Great Work from the Legislative Auditor.  The Office of the Legislative Auditor released its report on the compensatory education program today and presented the report to the House Education Finance Division.  Jodie Hauer from the Program Evaluation Division and Assistant Legislative Auditor Judy Randall presented the study.  As with all the work done by the Office of the Legislative Auditor, the report was comprehensive and well documented.  Many of the discussions surrounding the program have been around since the establishment of the compensatory revenue formula in 1987.  The demography of the student population has changed dramatically since the late-1980s and the compensatory revenue program has tried to keep pace with these changes.  Questions of transparency and appropriate use of the revenue have cropped up at several points in the past and the report dives into some of these issues in detail.  As the state moves forward, narrowing the achievement gap between white students and their peers in the various populations of color is at or near the top of the list of issues that must be addressed.  Having a compensatory formula that works will be crucial if this goal is to be met and this report should lay the groundwork for a fruitful debate on what the program should look like.

Here is a link to the report page in the Office of the Legislative Auditor:  OLA Report on Compensatory Revenue (Report Links in Right Hand Column)

School Safety Revenue Proposal Heard in Senate.  The Senate E-12 Finance and Policy Committee heard Senator Carla Nelson's SF 3629 this afternoon.  SF 3629 would extend the one-time school safety revenue that was passed last session one more year and extend eligibility for the revenue to the intermediate districts, rural education cooperatives, charter schools, and private schools.  In a year when additional revenue for schools may be difficult to come by, school safety may be the one area where the spirit of bipartisanship and willingness to spend may coincide to the extent a positive result can be reached.  Below is a link to the spreadsheet that shows the amount of revenue each district would receive under the bill.

SF 3629 Data Run (Total Revenue is Column K)