FINAL BILL REPORT

                   SB 6010

                         PARTIAL VETO

                         C 13 L 95 E1

                      Synopsis as Enacted

 

Brief Description:  Affecting the funding formula for the learning assistance program.

 

Sponsors:  Senators McAuliffe and Rinehart.

 

Senate Committee on Education

 

Background:  The Learning Assistance Program (LAP) is a state-funded remediation program for students in grades K-9 who need extra help in school to acquire basic skills.  The state distributes funding for the program to school districts based on the percentage of students scoring in the bottom 25 percent on the fourth and eighth grade tests.

 

In 1990-91, 22.4 percent of the 4th grade students scored in the lowest quartile on a nationally normed test.  A new test was implemented in 1991-92.  The number of students scoring in the lowest quartile increased to 25.2 percent and is estimated to grow to 29 percent by 1994-95.  Questions have been raised about the validity of the test due to the fact that the number of students scoring in the bottom quartile increased at the same time the new test was implemented.  Due to concerns about the validity of the test, the funding formula was revised in the 1993-95 legislative budget to discount questionable test results.

 

In the budget, the Superintendent of Public Instruction was required to make recommenda­tions to the Legislature on a new funding formula consistent with the new assessment system developed by the Commission on Student Learning.  This study was due by the 1995-97 biennium, but the superintendent could request a delay if the assessment system was not developed.  Since the assessment system was not developed, the superintendent did not make recommendations.

 

A study of LAP by the Legislative Budget Committee suggested that an option for changing funding for LAP might include changing the formula by adding a factor for poverty or other demographic measures associated with low educational achievement.

 

Summary:  Beginning with the 1995-96 school year, the distribution formula for funds is based upon both an assessment of students and a poverty factor.

 

The Superintendent of Public Instruction must develop recommendations for a new allocation formula for the program not later than the 1997-98 school year.  The recommendations are based upon the initial implementation of the new assessment system for reading, writing, communication, and mathematics.

 

Votes on Final Passage:

 

First Special Session

Senate    35 10

House     82 11

 

Effective:  August 22, 1995

 

Partial Veto Summary:  The emergency clause was vetoed.