Last week, Brian Rosenthal of the Times wrote a story about the amount of education spending in the budget proposals. He writes,

You may have heard that lawmakers are proposing to dramatically increase funding for public schools in response to a state Supreme Court order.

You may not have heard that some of them plan to do it in part by cutting programs and shifting money from other parts of the schools budget.

The supreme court decision in the McCleary case requires the legislature to spend more on basic education, not every single education program. Jerry Cornfield has a piece in the Everett Herald on what constitutes basic education and the history of the need for billions of dollars in new spending for it.

The House-passed 2013-15 budget increases NGFS+ spending on public schools (basic and non-basic) by $1.9 billion over 2011-13; about $1.3 billion goes to basic education, in response to the McCleary decision. The Senate-passed budget increases NGFS+ spending on public schools (basic and non-basic) by $1.5 billion; $1 billion goes to basic education. (For more on the budgets, see here and here.)

Given finite resources, it is not inappropriate to cut some education spending based on changing policy priorities or need. Both the House and the Senate do make cuts in some education areas, but that’s because they must prioritize basic education. As Rosenthal notes, the plans “would dedicate much of the new money to basic operating costs, such as textbooks, supplies, building utilities and school buses.”