Proposal reduces money planned for education

DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas/Southwest: "Lawmakers apparently will have up to half a billion dollars less than previously announced to fund new education programs and teacher salaries in the school finance bill being hammered out by House and Senate negotiators.

Several legislators confirmed Wednesday that the proposed amount of new money for schools over the next two years – not counting additional funds for enrollment growth – will be about $2.4 billion. That figure, representing an increase of about 3.5 percent, is $400 million to $500 million less than originally proposed for schools.

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said the reduced figure probably means that the Legislature will have to put off some education improvements for one year and possibly scale back other proposals in the school finance bill. One proposed change is a new merit pay program for teachers.

'We may have to wait until the 2006-07 school year to start a lot of these programs,' Ms. Shapiro said. 'When this much money has been cut out of what you were intending to use, it doesn't leave us much choice.'"