Bill > A519

Introduced Session

Whereas, paragraph 1 of Article III states, "The powers of the government shall be divided among three distinct branches, the legislative, executive, and judicial. No person or persons belonging to or constituting one branch shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as expressly provided in this Constitution." Whereas, paragraph 1 of Section IV of Article VIII states, "The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years." Whereas, paragraph 2 of Section IV of Article VIII states, "The fund for the support of free public schools...shall be annually appropriated to the support of free public schools, and for the equal benefit of all the people of the State." Whereas, paragraph 7 of Section I of Article VIII states that the income tax is to be, "...annually appropriated...exclusively for the purpose of reducing or offsetting property taxes." This bill establishes a new formula for the allocation of State aid to school districts to satisfy the Legislature's constitutional responsibility to provide for a system of free public schools. The bill provides State aid by determining a per pupil amount of State aid and multiplying that amount by the school district's projected resident enrollment for the budget year. The per pupil State aid amount is determined after the State Treasurer projects the total revenue amount from the State income tax for the budget year. Following the determination of the projected total State income tax, the Department of Education is to divide that amount by the total projected resident enrollment of the school districts. The department determines each school district's State aid by multiplying this per pupil State aid amount by the district's projected resident enrollment.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

John DiMaio (R)*,  Erik Peterson (R)*,  David Wolfe (R)*,  Michael Carroll (R),  DiAnne Gove (R),  Greg McGuckin (R),  Brian Rumpf (R),  Parker Space (R),  Harold Wirths (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee (on 01/09/2018)