School funding

Funding for Missouri education has become a bit brighter in recent days.

Because many districts were dipping into reserves this year, voters were asked earlier this month to approve tax increases and bond issues. Most of them passed.

And at the end of last week Gov. Bob Holden released another $127 million of education funding that had been withheld in July at the start of the state's current budget year. The other $83 million was released by the governor in December.

Holden and many Republican legislators disagreed on the need for the withholdings in July. The governor said there was too much uncertainty about state revenue, but for the most part he was smarting from the legislature's rejection of his plan to raise taxes. Under the governor's plan a year ago, the legislature would have approved spending increases, including those for education, that hinged on voter support of tax increases after the budget year began. Prudently, legislators decided both to hold the line on taxes and to not risk voter approval of tax increases.

What the majority of legislators were counting on in last year's session was that the economy was improving and that state revenue would be sufficient to cover the budget they approved. They were right, although Holden did not acknowledge the improved revenue flow in announcing last week's release of education funding. Instead, he cited other maneuvering in the state's finances that allowed him to send the money to local school district and state-funded colleges and universities.

If Holden had agreed with the legislators a few months earlier, he probably would have prevented the elections on local levy increases and bond issues. Now school districts must decide what to do with the extra money they are receiving so late in the budget year, which ends in June.

It might have been better not to release the funds this year, instead holding on to the revenue as a cushion for the new budget year that begins July 1. School officials face that same choice. Even though they will get the additional funding before the end of this budget year, they have the option of holding on to it for future squeezes. President Ken Dobbins said Southeast Missouri State University will put its $525,752 windfall into reserves for future years.

More good news for educators is the budget working its way through the current legislative session. The latest House version of the budget includes $201.7 million more for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education than was approved in the current budget year -- and $40.2 million more than Holden requested in his budget message.