Today a legislative subcommittee voted to recommend giving Arkansas public schools an additional $69 million in per-student funding for 2011-12. It would amount to a 2.5% increase overall and is mainly designed to cover transportation problems for rural schools.

The subcommittee making this recommendation is the Joint Adequacy Evaluation Oversight Subcommittee (JAEOS). It also recommends a 2.9% funding increase for K-12 schools in the 2012-13 fiscal year.

In recommending the extra money, the JAEOS is putting forth a new solution to school transportation woes. Rural districts have been having major problems funding their transportation, and thus the subcommittee says the standard statewide per-student transportation funding should stay at $297. Then the extra $69 million will be put into a special fund, and only schools with greater transportation needs will receive it.

Senator Kim Hendren (R-Gravette) criticized the recommended funding increase, noting that back in 2009, the legislature only approved a 2% increase for this fiscal year.

For more info, read this article from the Arkansas News Bureau.