A proposal to boost state funding for public schools by about 17%, increasing the current $5,960 per-student formula by $1,000, was unveiled Feb. 1 by state Senate leaders as the “beginning of the beginning” of a long debate about the future of education spending in the state.
Increasing what’s known as the base student allocation is the top priority of some legislators this session — the per-student funding amount is essentially unchanged since 2017, while inflation has risen about 21% since then.
Senate Bill 52 contains no provisions addressing future inflation or extra costs such as higher transportation expenses (school bus service).
“This is the first step of a long conversation we’ll be having,” Sen. Löki Tobin, an Anchorage Democrat who chairs the Education Committee, said during a press conference Feb. 1 with other members of the Senate majority, which consists of nine Democrats and eight Republicans.
If passed, it would represent the largest increase in state funding in a single year. Still, Caroline Storm, steering committee member of the statewide volunteer advocacy group Great Alaska Schools, said it’s not enough.
“I consider a $1,000 increase a start. I would like to see it higher just to make public schools whole again,” Storm said Feb. 1.
If approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor, a $1,000 increase would add about $627,000 in state dollars to the Wrangell School District budget, Tammy Stromberg, district business manager, estimated last Friday.
The district has been squeezed the past few years by rising costs and a pandemic-inflicted enrollment decline.
The additional funds would represent more than a 12% gain in revenues to the Wrangell district’s draft budget for next year.
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, however, has proposed another year of flat funding for schools in his budget for next year, and the Republican-led majority of the state House is expected to oppose the sizable increase sought by the Senate.
“Our biggest problem right now is how do we get an increase … through the House,” Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said in an interview Jan. 31. “I don’t know if we do that right now.”
Another significant issue is how increasing education spending will affect other budget priorities, including the Permanent Fund dividend. Dunleavy is proposing a dividend of nearly $3,900 — a new record. The almost $2.5 billion to pay that large of a PFD would put the state budget into a deficit, even before considering any increase in funding for public schools.
Senators talking about the education bill on Feb. 1 suggested a more balanced approach.
“If we had a $1,300 dividend we could pay for an education increase, we could pay for the deficit and we could pay for the municipal debt for the entire state with this year’s cash flow,” said state Sen. Bert Stedman, a Sitka Republican who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee.
“We’ve got to make a choice,” Stedman said. “Do we want to teach our kids to cash checks, or do we want to teach them to read and write?”
The Senate’s proposal would cost about $257 million in increased state funding, according to a legislative fiscal analysis. By comparison, Dunleavy’s total proposed budget for next year is about $7.3 billion, including the dividend payout.
The Senate’s proposed increase comes in the wake of Alaska posting some of the worst standardized test results in the country. Lawmakers participating in the Feb. 1 news conference said the lack of adequate state funding has resulted in larger class sizes and other detrimental effects that are likely contributors to low test scores.
Dillingham School District Superintendent Amy Brower has painted a grim picture that includes rising costs of health care and transportation, lack of adequate teacher housing and vacant teacher positions.
“I have had to make the hard decisions to cut teacher positions, eliminate support services and restructure critical programming,” Brower said.
Brower has also struggled to retain teachers, losing three in December: “The primary issue was the expense and condition of housing, and lack of livable wages.”
The Wrangell Sentinel and Alaska Beacon, a nonpartisan news website, contributed to this report.
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