Prairie Public Broadcasting

School official: $100 million increase welcome, not enough for adeqacy BISMARCK, ND (NDPR) - The executive director of the North Dakota School Boards Association says while Governor Hoeven's proposal of $100-million in new money is welcome, it won't do a lot by itself to reach a goal of education adequacy.

Jon Martinson is a member of the Governor's Commission on Education Improvement. He told the Bismarck School Board the definition of adequacy the Commission has accepted is a doubling of student performance in four to six years. He says the Commission has been operating under Hoeven's latest education funding proposal. Under it, $300-million would be a dollar-for dollar reduction in property taxes, leaving $100-million in increased funding. But Martinson says the various proposals laid out by consultants -- including specialists, tutors, instructional coaches and additional teacher development days -- will cost a lot of money. And he says most of the new money -- $90-million -- would go directly into the current per-student formula.

"I realize $100 million sounds like an awful lot of money," Martinson told the School Board. "It is , and we're appreciative of that. But it's woefully inadequate to double student performance."

The Commission is considering a phased-in adoption of the adequacy proposals. It plans to meet in October to finalize its recommendations to Hoeven and the Legislature.

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