The House got underway with the operating budget on Monday, frontloading a several-day process with a big-ticket amendment to increase school funding.
While the House Education Committee debates would’ve led you to think there’s not much support among Republicans for increased school funding, the measure passed the House with the only “no” vote coming from Rep. David Eastman.
The catch, however, is the funding doesn’t deliver the permanent and dependable increase to school funding that a change to the base student allocation would provide.
Instead, it’s a one-time increase of $175 million. That’s roughly equivalent to the $680 increase to the BSA currently proposed by House Bill 65, according to the changes made in the House Education Committee last week. School advocates say an increase closer to $860 would keep most districts whole heading into the following year, though the need for rural school districts can be much higher.
House Finance Committee co-Chair Rep. DeLena Johnson, the Palmer Republican who oversees the operating budget, said the temporary increase could address the immediate need while legislators mull over more extensive changes to how schools are funded. However, she called an increase to the BSA a “permanent liability” for the state and added that it’s unlikely legislators will be able to pass a change this year.
“A BSA increase is unlikely to occur,” she said on the House floor.
The House Finance Committee heard its first hearing on the BSA legislation last Thursday. The Senate’s BSA legislation has been in the Senate Finance Committee since mid-March and has yet to receive a hearing.
Legislators who’ve fought for higher funding and those who’ve pushed for far, far lower funding for schools supported the amendment. Those who have opposed increasing the BSA so far said the extra time could be used to understand better and research changes to the state’s foundation formula, which uses the BSA to determine just how much funding schools receive based on factors like location, size of schools and the needs of students. But, on the other hand, school funding supporters generally supported it because it was better than nothing.
Why it matters
In essence, though, the vote sets what is likely the baseline minimum for an increase in school funding this year. The budget still needs to clear the Senate, which has appeared to be generally supportive of a more significant and permanent increase to school funding passing this legislative session, so it’s unlikely that they’ll come in lower than the House. The House budget language is also contingent on a BSA increase not passing this year, so a BSA bill could still pass.
However, including one-time school funding in the budget would expose the funding to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto pen. Dunleavy has been reluctant to weigh in on a permanent increase in school funding this year, instead proposing a dividend-like program that rewards teachers with cash payments for sticking with a district each year for the next three years. Then, the governor could reduce or eliminate the funding as much as he wants.
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 Bluesky.
