New-look public education funding bill advances toward Alaska House vote
Alaska's public schools could receive a major permanent funding increase under a bill that will receive a final vote in the Alaska House of Representatives as soon as next week.
House Bill 69, from Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka, passed the House Rules Committee on a 5-2 vote early Wednesday. Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said debate on the bill will begin Monday in order to give lawmakers enough time to write potential amendments.
HB 69 has been the biggest topic of this year's legislative session so far. If signed into law, the current version of the bill would increase K-12 public school funding by about $250 million annually.
Last year, lawmakers and Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved a $175 million one-time bonus payment for public schools, making the year-over-year increase only about $75 million.
Nevertheless, school districts across the state have said that the increase will help them prevent major cuts to programs and reduce class sizes.
The increase approved by the House Rules Committee is less than Himschoot's original proposal, which would have amounted to a $325 million increase in the first year, with more increases in the second and third years.
Speaking to the committee on Wednesday, Himschoot said she reduced the rise 'in good-faith compromise' with lawmakers who worried about the original cost of the proposal.
As originally proposed, Himschoot's bill would have left schools at the same inflation-adjusted funding level that they received in 2011. Now, schools will be below that level.
HB 69 was originally limited to funding levels, but after closed-door negotiations with Dunleavy administration officials, the bill now includes some policy changes sought by the governor.
Among the key provisions:
Parents will be able to enroll their children in any school within a particular school district. Districts won't be able to limit enrollment to students who live near a particular school.
School districts must adopt rules that limit students' ability to use cellphones in school.
There will be additional hurdles if a school district seeks to eliminate a charter school.
The Legislature will create a task force to investigate further education changes, and the state will commission a report that investigates ways to reduce regulations on school districts.
Dunleavy has proposed an alternative bill, one that includes more favorable treatment for charter schools and home-schooled students. However, that idea from the Republican governor doesn't have support among the members of the predominantly Democratic coalition that controls the House.
On Wednesday, an attempt to amend HB 69 to include the governor's proposal failed by a 3-4 vote of the rules committee, with members of the House's Republican minority caucus on the losing end.
One amendment from House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, was adopted by the committee after gaining support from House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage.
That amendment calls for expanding a Dunleavy-backed reading-education bill to cover students from kindergarten through sixth grade. It currently stops at third grade.
Costello's amendment calls for the state to fund the program with $450 per student, but that funding is subject to legislative appropriation.
Alexei Painter, director of the Legislative Finance Division and the Legislature's chief budget analyst, said fully funding that provision will cost about $22 million per year.
Edgmon, a member of the rules committee, noted that Dunleavy himself has already vetoed funding earmarked to pay for his own reading law, and given that history, the program has questionable benefits.
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