School transportation vs. teachers' health insurance

With an anticipated reduction of General Revenue in the months to come, two major funding issues are arising regarding school transportation costs and the increase of teachers' (both active and retired) health insurance premiums. The rising cost of gas is putting the squeeze on many of the state's public school districts, and this is one issue that may need to be resolved prior to the session. Transportation costs have been a part of the state's funding matrix, but the Supreme Court has not historically given us "Lake View" credit for increasing the benefit for retired teachers' health insurance.

Retired teachers in Arkansas can spend up to half of their retirement benefit on insurance premiums and is about twice as high as their retired state employee counterparts. Meanwhile, the insurance premium costs for active teachers will rise by about $ 20 million as of October. This is one funding issue that'll be at the center of the 2009 legislative session -- neither gas prices nor insurance costs are likely to go down before then.