Increase in state funding for schools clears first committee

The Senate Education Committee on March 13 advanced a bill to increase state funding for public schools, clearing the bill’s first legislative hurdle.

The bill to increase the base student allocation, the per-student formula used to calculate school funding, heads next to the Senate Finance Committee.

The Senate bipartisan majority has named increasing public school funding as one of their top goals for the legislative session, and the measure has support from a broad coalition of education advocacy groups who are warning that districts will be forced to close schools or cut programs without a sizable boost to state funding.

Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Löki Tobin of Anchorage has said she worked with members of the governor’s administration and the state House to build support for the policy before advancing it out of her committee.

A controversial education policy proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy earlier this month has been called a “distraction” by advocates of a school funding increase, who worry the governor’s proposal could take the focus away from the looming budget crisis many school districts have forecast.

Even if the Senate bill clears the remaining hurdles in that chamber — as it is expected to do — it faces pushback from some members of the mostly Republican House majority, who have questioned the validity of the years-old formula used to calculate public school funding and have shown more openness to Dunleavy’s policy proposals.

The Senate’s bill would increase the base student allocation by $1,000 for the 2023-2024 school year, which would translate to an increase of $257 million in state spending on K-12 education.

The measure would produce more than $600,000 in additional state funding for Wrangell schools, a significant increase for the district’s operating budget of about $5 million. The Wrangell School District has been using federal pandemic relief aid and savings to balance its budget the past few years.

The state funding formula has not increased in six years.

The Senate bill would increase the funding formula the following year too, for an additional boost of $89 million in state spending — and another $200,000 or so for Wrangell each year.

The measure would also create new reporting requirements for school districts, which Tobin has said could make the bill more palatable to Dunleavy and conservative House members who have pushed for increased accountability measures for school districts.