While schools around the state make preparations for the coming school year, they’re getting some help figuring out their budgets for next year. The State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is providing on its Web site a simulation of what schools should expect to get when the new funding formula kicks in for 2006-2007. Education Commissioner Kent King suggests districts plug in their own numbers to get a better feel of what to expect from the new school funding formula approved by the legislature this year. King says schools should notice the new formula gives districts more flexibility in how to spend some of the dollars they’ll get. King realizes there’s a major lawsuit challenging this new formula still out there. But he feels confident that what lawmakers put together this year will stand up when the 2006-2007 budget moves from simulation to reality.