Associated Press Writer

By DALE WETZELBy DALE WETZEL

A panel that drafted legislation to revamp how state aid is apportioned among schools is opposing some of the North Dakota Senate's changes to the bill, including its restoration of a $50.9 million teachers' compensation fund.

However, Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple, chairman of the Commission on Education Improvement, said Friday the legislation remained in good shape. The bill, which the Senate endorsed 46-1, gets its first House hearing March 5.

"The Senate has accepted, by far, the lion's share of our proposals," Dalrymple said. "To me, that is a very positive sign."

The bill pools $724.1 million in state education aid over two years into one fund, and makes payments according to each district's number of students.

The distribution method includes adjustments for school size and location, along with factors that boost payments for special education students and students who do not know English well.

One of the Senate changes would allocate $50.9 million from the state aid pool to make payments for each teacher a district employs. Gov. John Hoeven advocated the payments six years ago as a way to prod districts to increase teacher salaries.

During the year commission members spent drafting the legislation, members agreed it was important to include all sources of school aid in the new distribution formula. The Senate change went against that principle, Dalrymple said.

"That is one of the great sources of equity, I think, is having it structured that way," he said. The change was motivated in part because very small schools with low student-to-teacher ratios benefit more from per-teacher payments than per-student payments, Dalrymple said.

Under the terms of the proposed new law, 70 percent of any increases in per-student payments are set aside for teacher pay and benefits.

Commission members also agreed to oppose Senate amendments that transferred $2.6 million in school payments for special education students who have less severe disabilities to those who are severely disabled, and more expensive to educate.

They also will seek a reversal of the Senate's decision to provide more state aid to schools that also get income from oil production and tuition payments from neighboring districts.

In the original legislation, 75 percent of that income was used to reduce a district's state aid allotment. The Senate reduced the percentage to 50 percent.