BILLINGS — The first draft of Montana’s 2020-2021 state budget won’t include the $22 million Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock requested to expand publicly funded preschool.
The Billings Gazette reports a Republican-led budget subcommittee on education left out the governor’s preschool funding when it finished its work Tuesday.
It’s early in the months-long budget process, and changes are made along the way as the spending plan goes before at least two legislative committees and the full House and Senate.
In 2017, lawmakers approved $6 million for a pilot preschool program in the session’s final days after rejecting the governor’s initial $12 million request.
Bullock has made publicly funded preschool a priority.
School Administrators of Montana executive director Kirk Miller says his organization will look for options to support preschool in the budget process.