Legislature cuts $577 million from K-12 education

By Marianne Goodland

Legislative reporter

The legislature’s Joint Budget Committee wrapped up its efforts to balance the 2020-21 budget in the face of a $3.3 billion shortfall on May 22, with the last cut the largest of all: $577 million from K-12 education.

The committee’s members said they held off on making cuts to education until the bitter end and it was a bitter pill to swallow.

Said Senator Bob Rankin, a Carbondale Republican and the committee’s senior member, that both parties’ priority during the budget-cutting process has been to maintain funding “for our kids.”

The cut comes in the...