This is a developing story.
An education funding and policy bill that’s been a dominant item this legislative session was stripped to a single provision — a $1,000 increase to the statutory $5,960 Base Student Allocation — by the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday morning. It was sent to the floor for initial consideration shortly thereafter, with Senate President Gary Stevens stating he expects the Senate to pass it Friday and a subsequent veto by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
“There are lots of folks in my caucus that want to support $1,000 and I want to give them an opportunity to do that,” Stevens told reporters after Thursday’s floor session. “The governor has made it reasonably clear to me, without saying explicitly, that he would veto $1,000. I think that’ll happen. The question is could we override the veto? I think that’s sort of up in the air.”
Dunleavy, in a social media message after the Senate floor session, declared “unless it is amended to address needed policies, if this lands on my desk, it’ll be vetoed immediately.”
“The Senate’s new education bill is a joke!” Dunleavy wrote. “It does absolutely nothing to improve educational achievement. It does absolutely nothing to support our high-performing charter schools and our popular home schools. This is an obvious attempt to strong arm members of the legislature. This is an NEA teacher union dream! Hundreds of millions of dollars of new spending and no accountability called for.”
The bill passed the House by a 24-16 tally and the Senate majority caucus holds a 14-6 edge. A total of 40 votes would be needed for an override. Stevens said “the next step then, honestly, is to go to a lower figure that’s something we can afford.”
Stevens said, in his opinion, “we can’t afford $1,000” given the state is facing a large shortfall in its budget for next year.
The Senate is expected to hear amendments on House Bill 69 and then pass it on Friday, Stevens said. He said the House may take up a concurrence vote the same day or on Saturday, allowing it to be quickly transmitted to Dunleavy.
The Senate Finance Committee — in a fast-tracked move after waiving the usual advance notice required to hear legislation— removed a broad range of policy measures included in earlier versions of House Bill 69 that passed a House floor vote March 12 and the Senate Education Committee on April 2. Among the provisions were restrictions on class sizes, expanding open enrollment within districts, limiting students’ ability to use cell phones, and putting limits on districts’ abilities to eliminate charter schools.
“The path for success, I believe, (is) we need to address the issue,” Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a Bethel Democrat who co-chairs the committee, said in response to a minority committee member questioning the purpose of moving hastily on the stripped-down bill. “There’s a lot of discussion on what level of funding the BSA should have. We’re putting this forward to see what support there is on this funding level in this building and on the third floor.”
The “third floor” reference was to Dunleavy, who instead of a BSA increase proposed about $180 million in additional spending targeted for specific purposes, including some provisions added to previous versions of HB 69. Critics said the package directed a disproportionately high ratio of funds toward homeschool students and took control of approving charter schools away from local districts by allowing the state to approve them.
Dunleavy, in social media messages, offered guarded “starting point” praise for the version of HB 69 passed by the House, but called further changes made by the Senate Education Committee a step backward.
The $1,000 increase is a decrease from the original bill introduced by Rep. Rebecca Hinschoot (I-Sitka) that contained a $1,269 increase for the coming year and $2,550 hike over three years. But it exceeds a $680 one-time increase in effect for the current fiscal year than some Senate majority caucus leaders were using as a baseline in drafting a proposed state budget for the coming year.
The $680 increase would cost a total of about $175 million, while a $1,000 BSA hike would cost about $250 million. State lawmakers say the state is facing a dire fiscal situation due to dropping oil prices and other factors, and is looking at a deficit exceeding $700 million if a status quo budget of roughly $12.5 billion for the coming year is passed.
Concern about the Senate Finance Committee’s changes to HB 69 was expressed Sen. James Kaufman (R-Anchorage), a minority member of the committee who said lawmakers have generally agreed the debate about education needs to involve more than just funding.
“Trying to get something done on education has been challenging, but the premise has always been that the funding needed to be worked with policy changes,” he said. “And a great deal of work has been done in our education committees. There’s been a lot of lot of work poured into this. This bill takes away all of that.”
“I just want to say on the record that if we’re going to get something done it’s going to have to be a thoughtful compromise that is durable.”
Sen. Löki Tobin (D-Anchorage) in an interview after the Finance Committee meeting, said her intent at this point is to separate the funding and policy issues so one doesn’t impede the other.
“We started this conversation by talking about the state of our schools and the desperate need they have for an increase the base student funding, and how we didn’t necessarily want to pair that with policy — well, with particular policies — because trying to deal with a ship that’s sinking while also rearranging the deck chairs on the lido deck is not actually very functional,” she said.
Tobin said sending a simple $1,000 BSA bill to the floor isn’t a negotiating tactic with Dunleavy — where a bill with his education policies might get approved if he approves a funding increase — and she isn’t yet conceding an increase of that amount won’t get enough support among legislators to survive a veto.
“I think this is where the people’s voice becomes more powerful than ever before,” she said, adding “I anticipate that the people in Alaska will see what is happening here in Juneau and recognize that without this resource, without these dollars, Anchorage is going to lay off 200 teachers…We’re going to have no middle school sports in my community. We are going to see more school closures across the state. We’ll have no nurses. This is where the people have power and they need to tell their legislators that our schools are not just institutions of learning. They are critical infrastructure in every community in this state.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
