The Alaska Legislature is getting to work on a bill that would lay out a three-year plan for boosting public education spending. Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka, introduced the bill Friday, which would boost the base student allocation, the largest component of the state’s public school funding formula, and provide annual inflation adjustments.
In total, Himschoot said, per-student state funding would increase by:
- $1,289 next school year, a 22% increase over this year
- $691 for the 2026-27 school year
- $570 for the 2027-28 school year
Himschoot, a former teacher who co-chairs the House Education Committee, said the bill is an effort to catch up after years of inflation outpacing public school funding. Adjusting for inflation, total public school funding — including federal, state and local contributions — peaked in the 2010-11 school year, according to legislative budget analysts who briefed the committee on Friday.
Prices have risen by nearly 40% since 2010, while base education funding has risen by roughly 7% over the same period, according to documents Himschoot filed alongside the bill.
“There's a huge gap there,” she said. “I think that all of us have noticed and have heard from families, from school districts, that that gap is there, and it's causing huge, huge problems and taking opportunity away from our students, so this bill looks to correct that.”
Leaders of both the House and Senate have said increasing the base student allocation is a key priority.
Education funding reached record levels last year after lawmakers passed a $175 million one-time funding increase for public schools, but the one-year bump was not included in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget for the next fiscal year. That means lawmakers will have to budget at least that much to keep school funding at current levels.
Himschoot’s bill is just two pages and addresses only the base student allocation. That’s a contrast with last year’s approach, when lawmakers pursued an omnibus funding bill that was ultimately vetoed by Dunleavy. The Legislature failed by one vote to override his veto.
This year, Dunleavy says he plans to introduce a $200 million education bill pairing a funding increase with reforms. Rep. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage and the House majority leader, said funding was only one piece of the puzzle.
“Our focus should be on preparing Alaska’s students to succeed,” she said by text message. “While the funding discussion is important, equally important are enacting new policies that can improve outcomes for our students and families.”
Republican lawmakers plan to discuss the funding issue at a retreat over the weekend, she said.
Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage and chair of the Senate Education Committee, said she plans to introduce a similar bill in the upper chamber. She said she thinks it’s important to tackle the funding question before moving on to other education policy issues.
“All of those things I anticipate we will tackle in the next two years. However, you can't rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic as it goes down,” she said by phone from Anchorage. “You have to get the ship stabilized and moving in the right direction.”
Majority lawmakers say they hope to move the bill through the House and Senate quickly, since school districts typically have to submit their budgets in early spring.
Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau, a former school board member who also co-chairs the House Education Committee, said the three-year phase-in and inflation adjustment are meant to make budgeting more predictable — and stem the tide of outmigration.
“This is an effort to keep our residents here (whose) number one thing is, how are you going to educate my kids?” she said.
Though it could ease budgeting for school districts, Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, said tying education funding to inflation might make the state’s budget less predictable.
“Inflation is tricky because we, at a state level, don't control monetary policy,” he said. “That's typically how a liability gets away from you in a budget process, to tie it to something you don't control.”
The House Education Committee plans to hear Himschoot’s bill, House Bill 69, at least three times next week. They’ll take public testimony at two hearings scheduled for Wednesday.
