Similar pieces of legislation to increase state funding for public schools are awaiting hearings in the House and Senate finance committees as lawmakers face a mid-May adjournment deadline and school districts make spending plans for the 2023-2024 school year.
The House bill, which was amended and moved out of the Education Committee on March 22, would increase the funding formula by a little over 11% in the first year and 2% in the second year, about half of the bill sponsor’s original proposal.
The Senate version, which moved out of its Education Committee a week earlier, would boost the state’s per-student funding formula, known as the base student allocation, by 17% in its first year and 5% the next year.
The measures, if either are passed into law, would bring an additional $425,000 to $625,000 to the Wrangell School District next year, providing much-needed relief to the schools which have been relying on savings and federal pandemic relief grants the past several years to cover holes in a $5 million annual operating budget.
“Since 2012, inflation has increased by at least 24%, while the base student allocation has increased only 4.2%,” Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz, who sponsored the House bill, told the Education Committee on March 22. “Because of inflation, spending power for education has actually decreased by about 20%.”
The committee on a 5-2 vote moved Ortiz’s bill to the next step, the House Finance Committee. His original version of the bill included a 21% raise in the state funding formula, but committee members cut the amount almost in half.
Ortiz suggested that the House Finance Committee — where he has a seat — could increase the amount.
In addition to proposing a larger increase in state money, the formula under the Senate bill would increase with an inflation index after the first two years. There is no similar escalator provision in the House bill.
The House committee took action on the bill after five hours of public testimony — almost entirely in favor of a substantial increase — the evening of March 21 in the Capitol.
The House bill is scheduled for consideration in the budget-writing Finance Committee on Thursday; the Senate bill is not scheduled for a hearing this week.
Ortiz said he would prefer that the Legislature settle on a number and pass a bill soon, removing uncertainty for school districts and municipalities that depend on state funding for much of their school budget. However, he said “practically,” a decision on state funding could very well wait until the end of the session in May.
The largest budget items, such as education funding, the amount of the annual Permanent Fund dividend and the public projects construction budget usually are negotiated and settled in the final week of legislative work.
It’s been years since any noticeable boost in the state’s education funding formula, and this year lawmakers seem to be paying more attention to the issue. Ortiz attributed their interest to “a growing chorus that we’ve been hearing” from school districts statewide, struggling to hold down class sizes, maintain programs and staff amid tight budgets.
The lack of school bus services at the start of last fall’s term in Anchorage and school board consideration of closing several schools to save money “really instigated a lot of this conversation” about sending more state assistance to districts, Anchorage Sen. Loki Tobin said last week.
“Anchorage ended up joining the chorus,” said Tobin, chair of the Senate Education Committee which introduced its school funding bill on Feb. 1. Before Anchorage, many legislators perceived any shortfall in state funding as more of a Fairbanks or rural issue, she said.
It helps that his House bill and the Senate measure both now include two years of funding increases, Ortiz said, providing lawmakers with a common framework for addressing the issue in the last seven weeks of the session.
The House bill moved out of committee with two members of the Republican-led majority coalition that controls the chamber voting in support and two members voting against the measure.
Republicans Jamie Allard of Eagle River and Tom McKay of Anchorage voted no, expressing concern at the cost and wanting to see better outcomes from public education before spending more state money.
The amended House bill would cost the state $175 million in additional spending in the coming fiscal year. The Senate proposal would add $257 million to the state budget. The numbers would represent about a 2% to 3% increase in overall state spending.
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