With the funding bill deadline in the rearview mirror, we will see a lot of activity over the next two weeks as funding bills hit the floor.  Funding bills all have to go through the appropriate over-arching finance committee in each body (Ways and Means in the House, Finance in the Senate), so there will likely be logjams in those two panels later this week and into next week as the mad rush to get the bills to the floor will ensue.  On top of that, policy-related conference committees will likely begin their work this week.

We’re racing down the backstretch of the 2024 legislative session and for education funding and policy, we’re actually closer to the final turn into the homestretch. The House passed its version of the omnibus education policy bill last Thursday night on a party-line vote of 69-61. Debate on the bill lasted almost four hours and there were several amendments, most of which were defeated on party-line votes. The amendments that received the most airtime were ones calling for the repeal of the ethnic studies standard, changes to the READ Act to incorporate language specifically highlighting the term “science of reading,” and repeal of much of the content contained in last year’s bill relating to non-exclusionary discipline. If I had gotten a nickel for every time I heard the word “mandate” uttered during the debate, I’d be off on a European vacation tomorrow without having to spend any of my own money.

I get a number of updates from legislators and this week one of them struck me as a little bit humorous. The legislator’s headline read “Session at the Halfway Point.” That may be accurate in terms of time if the legislative session runs all the way to the constitutionally-mandated day of adjournment on May 20, but so much work has already been completed in the policy committees as their respective omnibus bills begin to hit the House and Senate floors that it seems like we are at least at the three-quarters point in the process.

The Legislature returns tomorrow from the Easter break and they will be diving right in as they begin to pass major policy bills off the floor.  The Senate omnibus education policy bill is slated to be on the floor tomorrow and if the action during the last meeting of the Senate Education Policy Committee is any indication, there will likely be several amendments that seek to make changes in the bill.  There was little discussion as the bill passed out of committee on the effort to make it more difficult to ban books and other materials from the library, but I expect an amendment to that effect tomorrow.  I also expect some amendments that may try to loosen requirements around several programs enacted last year, but those amendments will likely come up short.  Still, with a razor-thin one-vote majority, there may be instances where an amendment offered by the minority party will sneak through.  It all remains to be seen.

It will be a short week ahead with the Legislature breaking on Thursday and returning a week from this Tuesday due to the scheduled Easter break and things will be happening quickly once they reconvene.  Both the House and Senate omnibus education policy bills are out of their respective committees and will be hitting the floor at some point in early April.  I have posted both of the bills as introduced, but there have been several amendments added to the bills and I will post the updated bills on the blog when they are reported to the floor with the amendments incorporated into the original text.  Here again are the bills as introduced:

HF 3782

SF 3567