House and Senate Approve Education Funding Bill

It s been nearly two years in the making and tonight North Dakota lawmakers have a bill that re-vamps the way state money is paid to schools in the state The bill which was drawn up to avoid a lawsuit against the state passed in both the House and Senate today It s designed to fund schools in a way that is more fair to large and small districts alike Lawmakers who worked on the 800-million dollar bill say it s monumental North Dakota is the first state to possibly avoid a lawsuit over inadequate school funding by passing legislation Republican Senator Layton Freborg likes the compromise But Democrat Senator Joel Heitkamp says the plan leaves out some districts Sen Joel Heitkamp D Hankinson A number of the school districts I have have struggled hard to hold the line on property taxes The messages I have from them is why are we being punished for holding the line on property taxes while other school districts haven t enjoyed other benefits that have come from it yet we re the ones that are taking the back seat in the formula Sen Layton Freborg R Underwood We ve come along way I think we ve given a lot of help that we could wring out of that bill for those districts I think there s something in here for everyone we ve helped these districts in different ways transportation without compromising the formula Williston Superintendent Warren Larson headed up the group of districts that sued the state for a new funding system He says his group will get together soon to look at details of the bill and decide if the lawsuit will be dropped