The Student Achievement Fund. Voter-approved Initiative 601 currently limits expenditures from the state general fund, which funds most public school spending. This fund will receive most of the earmarked revenues and pay for the expanded programs envisioned by the Initiative. The SAF will be distributed to public school districts based on enrollment. None of the money is to be used to increase teacher pay for existing duties.
Proponents point up specific provisions for local accountability for the funds.
Later, the district must present to the public a report detailing the money received, how the funds were used, and the progress made in boosting student achievement. Currently funded by excess balances in the reserve fund, the ECF would under I-728 receive revenue from the state lottery. Finding the Money I-728 mostly affects the distribution of state property taxes. It also, however, dedicates a stream of lottery revenues and uses fund balances in excess of the emergency reserve fund limit of five percent of annual general fund revenues. Under the provisions of I-601, and as clarified by the legislature last session, such transfers and fund diversions should result in a corresponding lowering of the state spending limit.