By Associated Press
Montgomery AL – An Alabama House committee has approved a bare-bones education budget that provides almost $375 million less money for schools and colleges than is being spent in the current fiscal year.
The budget approved by the House Education Appropriations Committee Wednesday cuts spending for school buses and for popular programs to improve performance in reading and in math and science.
It also provides less money for a distance learning program that allows students in poor rural areas to receive the same academic classes offered in prosperous suburban school districts.
The $6.3 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 also cuts money going to most colleges and universities.