Less than two weeks after state lawmakers gaveled in the 34th Alaska Legislature, funding for K-12 schools is already dominating committee chatter. People from around the Kenai Peninsula are making their voices heard on the first of what’s expected to be multiple bills aimed at boosting education funding.
Members of Alaska’s House Education Committee heard more than five hours of testimony Wednesday on this session’s first bill proposing a bump to K-12 funding. Sitka Rep. Rebecca Himschoot’s House Bill 69 would increase how much money school districts get per student and adjust the amount annually for inflation.
“The problem we're trying to solve for is that we've more or less flat-funded the funds that districts have to meet all of those increasing demands in the face of rapidly increasing fixed costs through inflation,” she said.
For years, public education advocates have called on the state to increase and inflation-proof the base amount of money districts get per student. That’s called the base student allocation, or BSA.. Other than a half-percent increase two years ago, the amount has stayed the same for almost a decade. In some cases, like last year, lawmakers have approved one-time money outside the formula. But districts say they can’t build budgets around funding that may or may not come through.
Cody McCanna is the principal of Aurora Borealis Charter School in Kenai. He told the House Education Committee yesterday he supports the bill.
“It's very important that the funding goes … inside the BSA funding formula,” he said. “Anything outside the formula, like it's been done in the past, is insecure funding, something that we can't look forward to in the future.”
Homer resident Charlie Franz opposes the bill. He wants to see new school funding paired with stricter accountability for districts.
“Any additional funding that we provide to our schools must include performance standards and incentives for high performing schools and teachers,” he said.
Emily Kizzia, has a different perspective. She’s a Homer High School graduate and is now raising her daughter in the same community.
“I do not see the bill as throwing money at a failed endeavor,” she said. “I see it as a recognition of past neglect and an acknowledgement that Alaska's future may well be directed on the basis of how attractive it makes itself to young families.”
The committee has already heard from Clayton Holland, the superintendent of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. On Monday, he laid out for senators ways the district is trying to cut costs – including a hiring freeze, elimination of overtime and trimming bus routes and how it plans to balance a $17 million deficit – cutting sports and extracurricular activities, firing more than 80 teachers and eliminating the district’s middle college program.
“When I think about the future of this district and Alaska, I think about those opportunities that are being missed, and have been missed over the course of the last 10 years, as we steadily declined in what we've done and offered to our students,” he said. “So I champion what we do. We have great kids doing great things and great people doing great things. We could definitely do so much more.”
Himschoot’s bill is just one school funding proposal. Gov. Mike Dunleavy is planning to bring forward a bill that includes some of his other education priorities. In the past, those have included more state oversight of charter schools and teacher bonuses. The governor’s office said Thursday that Dunleavy’s education bill would be introduced “soon.”
And Anchorage Democratic Sen. Löki Tobin, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said Wednesday via text message that members of the Senate Majority Caucus plan to introduce their own bill proposing an increase to the base student allocation], probably next week.
Kenai Peninsula school board members will convene for their monthly meeting Monday. The finance committee is scheduled to talk about the district’s budget at 2:15. At a quarterly work session Tuesday, board members will discuss the financial impacts of school closures. More information about upcoming board meetings is available on the district’s BoardDocs site.
