Health education program budget

Budget Coordination. Printer-friendly version. Last updated. Get the Latest Updates! Sign up. How do I…? Under the law, if the grants exceed the amount of money in the trust fund, then the state general fund would have to pay the grants. The deficit would be reported to the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee, the governor, and Executive Council, but could not delay paying the grants to parents.

The Education Trust Fund pays adequacy grants to school districts and per-pupil grants to charter schools as well as other education costs. Luneau noted the trust fund is based on estimates for what is needed to cover costs and if not enough money is in the fund after parental grants are paid, other areas would be squeezed and used the special education or catastrophic aid program as an example of one prorated in the past when the fund ran low of money.

He said the problem with the program stems from the commissioner estimating that 75 percent of students participating in the program would come from public schools, 15 percent form private schools and 10 from homeschooling. Instead, Luneau said, 83 percent were from private and homeschooling programs and only 13 percent from public schools. He said if most of the students had come from public schools, the state obligation would not change, but it does when with private and homeschool students.

He also said the state has an obligation to provide a public education to every eligible student, so its exposure already exists without the freedom accounts.

Committee member Rep. Glenn Cordelli, R-Tuftonboro, who supported the original bill establishing the accounts, asked Luneau what would happen if the program went to the original budget.