The Alaska Senate passed a second attempt at an education funding bill on Monday, setting up an up-or-down vote in the House that could send the bill to Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
House Bill 57 would boost the basic input into the state's public school funding formula, the base student allocation, by $700. It comes less than a week after lawmakers failed to override Dunleavy’s veto of a $1,000 boost to basic funding. The bill passed 19-1 with five members of the all-Republican minority caucus crossing over in support. Sen. Robb Myers, R-Fairbanks, was the only no vote.
School administrators, parents, businesspeople and community leaders have pleaded with lawmakers to boost education funding for years, and there’s broad agreement that the state’s public schools are underfunded. But lawmakers have failed to come to terms with each other and the governor on a long-term increase, instead offering one-time cash infusions the last two years.
“While the bill before you isn't the final answer to adequately funding our schools, it will get the much-needed financial resources our schools desperately need to retain high quality educators, reduce class sizes, keep beloved extracurricular activities and support our struggling students,” Senate Education Committee Chair Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, said.
It's an attempt at compromise with the governor. Dunleavy has called for any school funding boosts to be tied to policy items that he says would boost student performance. Those include changes to state law aimed at boosting charter schools and correspondence homeschool, along with grants supporting literacy in elementary schools.
Tobin, who negotiated in closed-door meetings with the governor’s staff on a prior attempt to find common ground on an education funding bill, said the final bill did not represent a deal with the governor.
“I am working with my colleagues here in the Senate and also in the House to ensure that we have a veto-proof majority supporting this legislation,” Tobin said in an interview after the vote. “I've been working my ass off, so I'm hopeful.”
The bill that arrived in the Senate Monday morning would, in addition to boosting overall school funding, provide a 10% boost in student transportation funding, require school districts to regulate student cellphone use and simplify the process of creating a new charter school or renewing its contract. It would also set up a task force to study education funding.
After the bill advanced out of committee last week, Dunleavy said he would sign the bill if lawmakers made “a few key edits.” Those included additional provisions aimed at boosting charter schools, an additional funding boost for correspondence homeschool, and an incentive program aimed at improving reading scores for young students.
Senators modified the bill in some important ways during debate on the floor, adding some but not all of the policies Dunleavy requested.
“We believe we’ve struck the most reasonable compromise we’re going to find this year,” Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, said.
One amendment, which passed with unanimous support, added a literacy incentive program proposed by Dunleavy to the bill. The program would pay school districts $450 for each student in kindergarten through sixth grade who reads at grade level or demonstrates improvement.
But, as the state faces a dire budget picture, senators tied the literacy program to passage of a Senate-approved bill that would boost state revenue. Senate Bill 113 would require companies who do business in the state via the internet to pay Alaska state income taxes. Senators have described the tax bill as a "unicorn" and said it would not increase taxes on Alaskans or companies based within the state. Revenues from the tax change would be allocated to the grant program, with any money in excess of the cost of the reading program going towards career and technical education.
“I'm just trying to find a way to get what I believe is the most important part of all this to the finish line,” said Sen. Robert Yundt, R-Wasilla and a member of the all-Republican minority caucus who sponsored the amendment alongside Democratic colleagues.
Some other Senate-approved changes to the bill relate to charter schools. If a school district decides to terminate a charter school contract, the bill would require them to show cause and give the charter school a chance to address the issue. It would also speed the timeline for the state school board to act on charter schools' appeal of local board decisions.
Another amendment to the bill would require school districts to set nonbinding target class sizes, with maximum targets set in state law: 23 for elementary schools and 30 for middle and high schools at 30. Districts would be tasked with tracking actual average class sizes and reporting them to the state. Tobin said the amendment, which passed unanimously, would help lawmakers “figure out the best way to support our local school districts and get them the resources they need.”
The newly amended bill would also ban student cellphone use during school hours, including lunch, unless a school board sets out a policy allowing it.
Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, said the cellphone policy, in addition to the reading-focused incentive grants, “would be a game-changer.”
The Senate also approved an amendment that would require lawmakers to study, but not necessarily implement, an open enrollment system that would allow families living in one school district to enroll their children in another.
Senators rejected a number of other changes to the bill, including proposals to reduce the number of years that the state tracks student outcomes, require districts to report the results of staff exit interviews and add an incentive to the state school funding formula that the sponsor said would "encourage" correspondence students to take standardized tests.
Dunleavy’s proposal to increase correspondence homeschool funding did not come up for a vote. Hughes said lawmakers were looking to keep the overall cost of the bill manageable given the state’s budget constraints, and that the benefits of a homeschool funding boost would not necessarily flow to students.
“It was not going to change, for instance, the allotment that a parent would get per child,” Hughes said. “It would have provided more for the district.”
Senate approval of the bill sets up a fast-track vote in the House.
Because an earlier version of the bill already passed the House, though at that time it included only a requirement to regulate student cellphone use, Senate passage sets up a yes-or-no concurrence vote in the House. If the House votes to accept the Senate's changes, it would be sent to the governor's desk.
A spokesperson for Dunleavy declined to comment ahead of the final House vote. But Hughes, a close ally of the governor, said she had been in touch with Dunleavy, asking him to accept the compromise.
“I can almost guarantee you that the governor is not a happy camper right now,” Hughes said. “But I will tell you, I had a conversation with him over the weekend, and I talked about pride and ego and really implored him to look at the big picture”
Several Republican senators — Sens. Mike Cronk, R-Tok, Robert Yundt, R-Wasilla, and James Kaufman, R-Anchorage — said they would support an override if Dunleavy ultimately vetoes the bill. Several said they were glad to support a compromise.
“We're not a Republican in Idaho, and we're not a Democrat in California,” Yundt said. “This is a state where everybody has to give.”
Hughes and Shower said their support for an override would depend on whether the tax bill that would fund the reading program passes.
Though the House initially planned to vote on the final bill Monday, lawmakers sent the bill back to the Senate for a re-vote after discovering an error in the bill’s language. A final vote is expected Wednesday.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said the vote came less than a week after the governor's veto. It comes less than a week after a failed override vote.
