The House Education Committee this morning advanced legislation to increase the base student allocation not to levels that statewide school advocates say is needed to stem cuts, but what the school district of the committee’s co-chair says it needs.
Originally pitched as a $1,250 increase to the base student allocation, House Bill 65 left the House Education Committee this morning as an $800 increase spread out over the next two years. That’s what House Education Committee co-Chair Rep. Justin Ruffridge says the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District needs to avoid cuts and increased class sizes.
It comes to a $680 increase to the BSA this year and a second-year increase of $120. The BSA is a figure fed through the state’s foundation formula—a formula that takes into account the size of the district, its location and the needs of its students among other things—to determine the level of funding each district requires.
When asked for his reasoning for the change, Ruffridge said he was thinking locally.
“The $680 number is, actually, in some cases very personal,” he said. “That happens to be, I think, the number that has been made public by my own school district as to what is helpful to them to be able to maintain their education without increasing class sizes as well as closing down athletics, theaters and pools.”
The Alaska Association of School Boards testified at the start of the session that an increase of $860 was the bare minimum needed to keep school districts across the state up with inflation and expiring one-time money. The Senate has advanced legislation that would increase the BSA by $1,348 over two years.
Rep. CJ McCormick, D-Bethel, said many rural school districts in his House district face far higher needs than what a road system districts need.
“I represent a lot of school districts that lack basic needs that I think some of other school districts that some folks on this committee represent have,” he said. “I think reducing it to this number makes me very uncomfortable. If this is the only way forward, I understand that, but to use an analogy I feel like I’m being asked to drive from Bethel on a snowmachine to the Yukon on a quarter-tank of gas.”
Rep. Ortiz, I-Ketchikan and sponsor of the bill, urged legislators to think beyond the bounds of their own legislative districts.
“The logic is sound from the perspective of you being a representative of your particular district, however, the Education Committee as a whole and the Legislature as a whole we don’t just represent our own districts,” he said. “We have needs that are greater than that in some areas of our state. Real education needs. Real needs for the children that walk through the schools in those districts.”
Other legislators on the committee—Reps. Rebecca Himschoot and Andi Story—also expressed frustration with the lower number, but ultimately supported it in service of advancing the legislation with the hopes that it would be increased in later in the process.
Rep. Ruffridge attempted to later explain his thinking, calling it a “good-faith effort” to move the process along while respecting the state’s shaky financial position.
“At risk of sounding a little bit selfish, which maybe I did, I understand the duty we have to fund schools throughout all Alaska,” he said, recognizing Rep. McCormick’s comments about rural Alaska. “That’s certainly not my intent with this amendment to make life in rural Alaska any more challenging in regard to education.”
Realistically, Ruffridge represents somewhere of a middle ground between supporters of increased school funding and hard-line Republicans in the House who’ve long held a combative, generally cynical attitude toward public education.
At least three of those Republicans are also members of the House Education Committee, and they pushed for a far lower increase to school funding.
Anchorage Republican Rep. Tom McKay put forward an amendment that would have cut the increase in education funding down to just $150. McKay accused schools of having no accountability for their performance and that the state’s foundation formula was an indecipherable “black box” that needs to be completely overhauled.
He also went as far as dismissing much of the supportive testimony for increased school funding.
“We call it public testimony but a vast majority of the folks who testified last night for five hours were paid school district employees of some sort. Principals, superintendents, teachers, people that make their living off the BSA and the money we send them,” he said. “It’s not necessarily true that we were receiving public testimony. I speak for the folks who sit home and work.”
McKay claimed there is “plenty of money” for schools to operate, and it’s just a problem of mismanagement by school boards.
That measure was ultimately defeated by the committee with just Reps. McKay, Jamie Allard—who at one point accused schools of not even training teachers to teach students how to read and accused legislators of bullying away anyone who would have testified against the BSA—and Mike Prax supporting it.
The amended proposal for the BSA heads next to the House Finance Committee. The Senate Education Committee advanced its version of the BSA bill—which not only calls for a $1,348 increase over two years but would tie it to inflation after that—last week. It’s expected to be taken up in the Senate Finance Committee sometime next week.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
