The latest push in the years-long effort to reform the school funding formula will take on more shape this week, with advocates, educators and lawmakers gathering for a press conference in support of a bill that will likely be filed on Tuesday.
The bill — dubbed the Education PROMISE Act, for “Providing Rightful Opportunities and Meaningful Investment for Successful and Equitable Education” — would implement the 2015 recommendations of a Foundation Budget Review Commission that found the state’s school funding formula inadequately accounts for costs including health care and special education, coming up short by $1 billion annually. Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz is the bill’s lead Senate sponsor, and Reps. Aaron Vega and Mary Keefe are the lead House sponsors, according to Chang-Diaz’s office.