Florida lawmakers have a cooling off period to review their proposed 2015-16 spending plan before voting on it. The details are many, tucked away in pages of text.
To get a good understanding of the education budget, it’s best to look at three key documents — the FEFP conference report, the implementing bill and the budget bill conference report, with particular attention to Specific Appropriation 90 in Section 2 (Education).
You’ll find that lawmakers did provide more money to public education than in the past, but not to the historic level many had requested. Total funds per student (unweighted) come in at $7,096.96, up 3 percent, while total K-12 funds log in at $19.68 billion, up 4.13 percent. The number of students being planned for is up 30,056.
