The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is considering a change to how it funds education.
A proposed ordinance before the Mat-Su Assembly would direct the borough to calculate funding of schools as a percentage of the property taxes it takes in each year, and it would set the rate for five years. In the proposal’s current form, that would be $6.25 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. That’s about half of the total property taxes the borough takes in each year.
The borough says it would do away with complicated annual calculations it uses now and provide a predictable amount for schools. The school district still gets the majority of its funding from the state, but that has lagged in recent years, putting more financial pressure on the borough. In spite of a growing student population, last year’s funding for the school district stayed flat.
The proposal was up for public comment at this week’s borough Assembly meeting, and there appeared to be an even mix of supporters and opponents speaking out.
Parent and business owner Dan Vannoy said he supports the proposal because it could make it possible to hire more teachers, shrink class sizes and provide more opportunities for students.
“That’s going to be our future workforce, future leaders, future teachers and everything else that these kids have the opportunity to become,” Vannoy said. “I definitely think that it’s something to see the value in being able to fill these teaching positions and actually have smaller classrooms, give them the opportunity to do these additional activities, so that we can have a well-rounded person that comes out every single time.”
Under current property value totals, the borough estimates school funding at the proposed rate of 6.25 mills would be nearly $58 million next year, an increase of 3.75 percent from the current fiscal year. The Mat-Su Borough School District has proposed bumping that figure up slightly more to a mill rate of 6.5.
The ordinance would not add any new taxes, and the Mat-Su borough manager has proposed leaving the overall area mill rate unchanged.
But some testifying before the Assembly on Tuesday night said the school district should not get more money, regardless. That included Loren Means.
“We just need to do a better job with what we’ve got,” Means said. “If we could just figure a way to take some of the top end expenses out and leave it down at the bottom where the rubber meets the road with students. There’s not an overpaid teacher anywhere in our school district. I do believe we’ve got overpaid administrators and too many of ’em.
Public comment on the school funding ordinance is set to continue at the Assembly’s next meeting on April 17.
Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him atcgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Caseyhere.
