As the legislative battle over education funding continues to take shape in the state capitol, the bipartisan Senate Majority has made clear the increase proposed by the Republican House Majority is far too low.
“I think $300 is unreasonably low, lower than it’s been in the past,” Senate President Gary Stevens said of the proposed increase to the base student allocation during a Tuesday news conference.
With many disputes over the shape and scope of the sprawling education bill put forward by House Republicans, the base student allocation is at the heart of the debate in Juneau. Stevens said the Senate would prefer the House unwind the pieces, passing a critical internet connectivity bill at the core of the legislation without the add-ons.
The BSA is a figure in state law used to determine how much funding each school district receives, taking into account things like the size, location and needs of students. It is currently $5,930 per student and hasn’t seen a significant increase since 2016.
With years of inflation, schools have seen their buying power drop to about 75% of 2016 levels, forcing districts to consider shuttering schools, eliminating programs and growing class sizes. Education groups say an increase of $1,413 is needed to keep up with inflation.
Last year, the Senate passed a bill that would have raised the BSA by $680, roughly $174 million per year. Stevens stopped short of saying what the Senate would pursue, noting that the legislation still has yet to clear the House, where the funding could be changed through a floor amendment.
The Legislature ultimately approved the same number in the budget as one-time money, half of which was vetoed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Dunleavy and House Republicans have questioned the usefulness of a blanket increase in school funding, arguing that targeted money will improve outcomes. Some of those targeted priorities have been laid out in the House Republican’s education bill, including increased funding for homeschooled students and a controversial teacher bonus program.
Senators have raised doubts about the approach, arguing that the targeted investments are mainly going into areas that benefit families with the means to homeschool their children or attend public charter schools where transportation and food aren’t always available. The BSA, they argue, gives schools the flexibility to invest the funding where it’s needed most.
“The best and most effective and also most equitable way to get those resources into the classroom is by a significant increase to the base student allocation,” said Sen. Löki Tobin, the Anchorage Democrat who chairs the Senate Education Committee.
At an earlier news conference, House Rules Committee Chair Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage, said people weren’t considering the value of a permanent increase. He argued that $300 in one-time funding was better than the $680 of one-time money passed by the House last year but conceded that there wasn’t much rationale behind setting it at that level.
“I wouldn’t say it was thoughtful, but sometimes you put something on paper knowing it’s going to change,” he said.
He explained that the House Republicans wanted to cap the bill’s price tag at around $200 million. The $300 BSA increase, which amounts to $77 million annually, was left over after the proposed home school increases, teacher bonuses and other changes.
“That’s basically how it was done. We went with the big number, backed it out, started with that, added the other stuff and came up with a number very close to what the governor can live with. He really, I don’t think, wants any BSA. You’d have to ask him about that. We were able to work with that,” he said. “I’m not saying we plucked it out of the air—we did not—but it was kinda backed into it, for lack of a better term.”
The House could take up the legislation as early as this Friday.
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.
