Alaska lawmakers consider education funding boost, with no agreement on its size

JUNEAU — Education advocates are calling for a minimum 14% increase in the per-student formula used to calculate funding for K-12 education, but Alaska lawmakers have yet to agree on an exact increase size.

At Senate Education Committee meetings held in the second week of the legislative session, members of the bipartisan Senate majority appeared open to a substantial increase in the base student allocation formula, but have yet to introduce legislation to that effect. At the same time, Republicans, who control the majority in the House of Representatives, have signaled that they are interested in a more modest increase in appropriations.

From 2011 to 2022, base student allocation increased less than 5%, while Alaska’s urban consumer price index increased 24.6%.

The Alaska Association of School Boards is asking lawmakers to consider an increase from at least $860 to $5,960 per student. This figure, recommended by the Anchorage School District and approved unanimously by association delegates last year, accounts for inflation between 2017 and 2022 and would represent an increase of about 14% over the current funding rate per student. But federation director Lon Garrison said on Wednesday that the number is already insufficient to account for inflation as costs continue to rise.

“There’s actually a much bigger increase,” Garrison said. Still, he said the figure is a good place to start for lawmakers as they begin the process of deliberating on increasing funding, hoping to finalize the legislation in the coming months.

“At least there is one point we can talk about. There will be debate and negotiation,” Garrison said. “We will champion where we started, but the reality is we know this is going to be a discussion.”

Rep. Justin Ruffridge, a freshman Republican from Soldotna who was named co-chair of the House Education Committee, said school funding will be one of the committee’s focuses this year, but he has the number for a possible BSA increase somewhere in between Priced at $250 and $750 – well below what most educators consider to be the bare minimum. The House Education Committee, also co-chaired by Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, has not met since the beginning of the legislative session earlier this month.

Ruffridge said his goal is to keep an open mind before hearing from school administrators, teachers and stakeholders who will be speaking with lawmakers in the coming weeks about the challenges they face.

“If you give a number directly, then you have suddenly started negotiations. And that’s really not the right way to do it. The right way is to really get involved and find out where the money is going? How did we get to this place?” said Ruffridge. “There is still a lot to be done before you can fully answer this question.”

Conservatives are also considering making education funding more closely linked to student achievement. Alaskan children have consistently scored lower on reading and math tests than children in other states, and some conservative politicians have posited that this is because public tuition funds are not being used effectively. But teachers and education advocates have said poor student performance stems from persistently flat funding for education, which has made it harder to provide students with the conditions they need to succeed.

House Speaker Cathy Tilton, a Republican from Wasilla, said in a news conference earlier this month that she will consider input from the right-wing Alaska Policy Forum when deciding education policy. This group, which has campaigned in the past for cuts in government service spending, argued in a recent report that public schools lack accountability.

Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said his caucus discussed the need to increase funding for education, but also the need to “set up sideboards” to ensure funds are used in certain ways over others.

“I think there’s a bit of a problem setting up criteria like that,” said Stevens, a veteran university professor.

Lisa Parady, director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, told the Senate Education Committee that educators “are not afraid of accountability,” but that without a significant increase in funding, they will continue to struggle to meet basic student needs.

“I really want to make it clear that we’re not asking for whipped cream or ice cream on the cake. We’re just asking about the crust or maybe the filling,” Parady said.

Parady said her organization polled school leaders to see what increase in the per-student payment they would need “to be fully made up for the years of lump sum funding.” Superintendents responded with numbers ranging from 14% to 18%, Parady said.

“That increase, whoever it is, is just going to help them cover their ongoing operational costs,” Parady said. “There was this idea that if we increase the BSA, we have money available to do a few extra things. But the truth is we will start by completing districts and giving them stability so we can then move on from there.”

During Senate Education hearings, lawmakers were inundated with examples of counties struggling to keep schools open, pay teachers, keep buildings warm and serve lunch.

Sarah Sledge, director of the Coalition for Education Equity, said districts in rural Alaska are already dealing with or preparing for budget deficits because education funding will not increase over five years. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, fuel, operating and construction costs increased significantly, by more than 40% in some counties, she said.

“These are things that they have to pay for to give our children an education,” she said.

Sledge and Parady said schools’ need to meet rising fixed costs like electricity and maintenance bills is affecting their ability to hire educators and retain support staff like librarians and cafeteria workers.

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, a Republican from Nikiski who is also a high school teacher, expressed concern that even a 16% increase in school funding would not allow schools to fully fund vocational and technical education programs, world language courses, and counseling services. Librarians, nurses, school lunch programs and janitorial services.

“We’ve seen cuts in programs’ ability to move forward, which is really why many children are happy to get up and go to school every day. So what you’re trying to tell us is if we agree to increase BSA by about 16%, that kind of stops the bleeding in Alaskan schools and really stops schools from having to cut,” Björkman said after Parady before the Education Committee had spoken. “If we’re really going to get back to where we were 10 years ago with the human resources development and all the educational opportunities that existed back then, then we have to make a significant investment on top of that, right? ?”

Some education advocates are already pushing for a more than $1,000 increase to more accurately reflect cumulative inflation since 2017. At an education rally in Juneau on Monday, some protesters held up signs calling for a $1,086 hike.

“I’m not ready to land on a number myself,” said Rebecca Himschoot, an independent Sitka teacher and Minority Member of the House of Representatives. “A lot of the conversation is about what we don’t have because the BSA hasn’t gone up and it’s important to know that. I’d like to shift this conversation to what we could have if we got solid funding for the BSA.”

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