(SitNews) Juneau, Alaska - Today, the Alaska Senate Finance Committee unveiled what they say are improvements to Alaska’s Education Opportunity Act, otherwise known as Governor Sean Parnell’s education package. The Alaska Senate’s plan focuses on providing more choices for parents, giving more resources to teachers and creating more opportunities for students.

“This plan puts education in the hands of the people who can best identify and serve the students: teachers and parents,” said Senate Finance Co-Chair Kevin Meyer (R-Anchorage). “Parents know their kids the best. This plan gives parents more options to best meet the educational needs of their children. Once inside the classroom, teachers know what works best for each student. This plan puts more resources directly into their hands.”

According to a news release from the Senate Finance Committee, the most notable change to House Bill 278 is the funding mechanism. After considerable discussion and input from individuals and organizations, the Senate Finance Committee decided to add an additional $100 million in funding each year for the next three years, which roughly equates to a Base Student Allocation equivalent to $400 per student for the next three years.

“Education is a top priority for us, and as we work towards making Alaska’s schools the best in the nation, we realized the way we fund education in our state needs to be reevaluated,” said Senator Kevin Meyer (R-Anchorage). “That’s why we chose to put the money outside of the formula -- to give us time to really study the various factors that go into the formula, while allowing districts the flexibility to be innovative. There hasn’t been a comprehensive look at the formula since 1997, and now is the time to do that. We also wanted to make sure we created more choices for students and parents, but also stability for school districts and teachers, and that’s why we committed to forward funding for the next three years.”

Major components of the Senate’s Education Plan include:

• An extra $400 per student for the next three years
• Incentives to create more charter schools such as lowering the minimum number of required students for 100% funding from 150 to 75, allowing charter schools first option to lease empty space in district-operated public schools, and a $500 one-time credit per student for start-up charter schools. Municipalities can also now exempt private property used for charter schools from property taxes.
• More money for correspondence study programs by raising the 80% funding to 90% funding
• Allowing students to ‘test out’ of core courses while still receiving credits required for the Alaska Performance Scholarship
• Repealing high school exit exam instead allowing students to take the SAT, ACT or WorkKeys
• Providing Innovative Learning Grants
• Personalized learning opportunity grant – students get a “tablet” for learning through technology
• Creating Education Tax Credits for early childhood learning programs, apprenticeship programs, residential schools and dual-credit learning, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs
• Funding for broadband to make it possible for teachers to video conference with remote schools and teach in real time
• Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) in middle schools
• Funding comprehensive studies regarding how state money is distributed to school districts including geographic cost differentials and size factors for school

“I would like to thank Governor Sean Parnell for providing the framework for Alaska’s Education Opportunity Act and the House for further improving on it,” said Senator Meyer. “I think through our collaborative efforts we finally have a plan that puts students first, gives flexibility and choice to parents, and allows us to forward fund education adequately, and pause to really examine education funding reform in our state.”

According to information provided on NEA-Alaska's website, the Base Student Allocation (BSA) is the prime mechanism to fund Alaska's K-12 education system. The BSA is what funds the operation of school districts. It is the BSA that pays salaries and benefits, purchases classroom supplies, curriculum, determines staffing and class sizes, etc.

According to NEA-Alaska, in 1994 the Base Student Allocation (BSA) was $3,940. Over an eight year period, the BSA increased to only $4,010. It wasn't until 2002-2009 that Alaska made an investment in public education, with a 39% increase over a seven year period which resulted in a BSA of $5,480 in 2009.

Since 2011, the BSA was increased to $5,680 from which it has not been increased, not even for inflation according to NEA-Alaska.

Information provided by the Alaska Policy Forum's website states, according to the State of Alaska Dept of Labor & Workforce Development, inflation has increased 27.2% during the same period (State Dept of Labor). Alaska Policy Forum website states that one can conclude that for the BSA to keep up with inflation over the past ten years, the BSA would have to be $5,303 for the current fiscal year (FY14).

Quoting Alaska Policy Forum's website, today’s BSA is $377 more than needed to keep up with the past ten years of inflation. It is somewhat deceptive to look at only the past four years to evaluate the funding of the BSA. A ten year look gives a much clearer picture according to the Alaska Policy Forum.

In addition, the BSA is not the only factor in the Foundation Formula which is used to calculate the per student funding each school district receives from the State of Alaska notes the Alaska Policy Forum. The other factors include geographic cost differences, size of various schools, special and intensive needs special education student populations, correspondence programs, federal aid, and the ability of local communities to provide contributions (property taxes). The BSA may remain the same, yet some of the other factors may increase, which is what has occurred since 2007 according to the Alaska Policy Forum.

The Citizens for the Educational Advancement of Alaska’s Children (CEAAC), a coalition of two dozen school districts and other education advocates, has called for a $400 BSA increase this year, followed by $125 increases in each of the next two years.

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

On the Web:

House Bill 278
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill.asp?bill=HB%20278&session=28

Source of News: 

Alaska Senate Finance Committee
www.akleg.gov

Co-Char: Senator KEvin Meyer
Co-Chair: Senator Pete Kelly

Alaska Policy Forum
http://www.alaskapolicyforum.org

NEA-Alaska
http://www.neaalaska.org

Citizens for the Educational Advancement of Alaska’s Children (CEAAC)
www.CEAAC.net

 

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