As reported yesterday, the Legislature is busy working through the last scheduled week of the 2024 legislative session. The conferees for the House and Senate Committees on Education have met several times in the last two days. Today’s afternoon conference committee saw a very bad offer regarding special education funding. The crux of the offer is to take the consumer price index increases for regular education and use it to fund special education. This is concerning on many levels. The offer was not accepted, and it is unclear whether the House conferees will accept or propose a counteroffer when the committee reconvenes at 9 am tomorrow.
Here’s our ask: Be patient. This is just the beginning of the process, and politics are at play. We hope cooler heads will prevail as we move towards adjournment at the end of this week. We are not ready to take full action yet, but we did want you to hear about this from us first. When it is clear what the final product will be, we may call on all of you to take action. Until then, we will be monitoring this closely. Stay Tuned.
