Lawmakers pass school funding bill

(NETWORK IN)   Schools will get a funding boost to see them through until the next state budget.

Legislators have authorized 100-million dollars in extra money to make up for higher-than-expected enrollment. The money will come out of state tuition reserves.

The bill does exclude students under five years old from the official enrollment count, and thus from funding. Senate Appropriations Chairman Ryan Mishler (R-Bremen) and House Ways and Means Chairman Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville) say some of the enrollment increase resulted from a spike in four-year-olds being enrolled in kindergarten, then repeating the grade the next year.