Separate money sources for special education, immigrant English instruction and other programs would be combined as part of a blueprint for streamlining North Dakota's method of allocating state aid among schools.

Members of the state Commission on Education Improvement said Thursday the approach would help concentrate schools' efforts to lobby for more taxpayer support, by setting aside small programs that compete for their own chunk of state education aid.

Discarding separate budgets for special education and the English Language Learner (ELL) program, which helps teach English to students who are not native speakers, does not mean their financial backing will be reduced or abandoned, commission members said.

"Instead of having a lot of little programs, each of which has its own set of rules … what we're trying to do is create a comprehensive formula that recognizes all of these different needs, but assigns an actual cost to them relative to the cost of educating an everyday student," said Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple, the commission's chairman.

Instead, a new procedure for calculating each school district's share of state education aid would be established. It would factor in added state aid for each student who required extra English instruction, special education, or other services that are costlier for schools to provide.

Under the plan, the Legislature would provide a single sum of money for education aid, and the new formula would ensure districts would be compensated for the more expensive services they provided.

"We've got a single, comprehensive funding formula, so school districts … can go into the legislative process and say, 'OK, we need more funds for special ed, or for ELL, and the way to get them is by getting more money into the total appropriation, to fund the total system," said Mark Lemer, a commission member who is business manager for West Fargo schools.

Lemer said the new blueprint would be more suited to a different emphasis for determining what is the proper amount of state aid for local schools.

At present, the education finance formula relies on each district's enrollment in determining its amount of state support. Education officials want it to focus on the money needed to provide an adequate education to students, although there is disagreement about what that means.

Gov. John Hoeven appointed the commission in January as part of an agreement with nine school districts to delay their lawsuit against North Dakota's education finance system.

Superintendents from two of the nine districts are serving on the panel, which will have to finish its recommendations in October. The Legislature's organizational session will be held in December, with its regular business session starting in January.

As part of the agreement, Hoeven said he would ask the Legislature to raise state school aid spending by $60 million over two years.