It is a policy maze being navigated by state lawmakers, school leaders and educators across the country.
Under terms hammered out in May by state lawmakers, public school districts will be reimbursed for the tax, which costs businesses 34 cents for every $100 of wages.
To help ease the pain of the $4 billion reduction in state financing for public education, and in an attempt to reduce state mandates at the district level, lawmakers exempted school districts from having to collect and report the data on a significant number of students.
While legislators and local school officials generally laud the goal of giving districts greater flexibility, each of those pots of money represents a hard-won gain for an alliance of parents, lawmakers and school administrators, who might be reluctant to give it up.
During #SleepAwarenessWeek ask your lawmakers and school leaders to #StartSchoolLater for child health.
OO Maine: GOP Governor Tries Again to Cut Renewable Energy Law To Aid Big Companies OO Virginia: GOP Lawmaker Proposes Schools Teach That Climate Change, Evolution May Not Exist <><><><>.
The funding is robust, the goals are admirable and the challenge has engaged lawmakers and school districts to embrace critically essential changes in the way they educate youth.
November's voter rejection came after lawmakers cut school funding by $200 million earlier this year, leading to increased class sizes and rounds of teacher layoffs.
As lawmakers push secondary schools to add classes in occupational areas short on workers, many school districts are devising workaround solutions such as partnering with community colleges.
After the mass shootings last month at a Connecticut elementary school, lawmakers could also consider measures to heighten security at public schools, including a bill to let school employees carry concealed handguns.
