House Rules Committee passes $807 million school funding bill that has no source of funding

By DAVID BOYLE

The House Rules Committee passed House Bill 69, which will increase the K-12 budget by more than $250 million this year for a total of $807 million by Fiscal Year 2031.  

Now the bill is to be heard on the House floor on March 6 at 10 a.m.

Here is the fiscal note:

That K12 funding comes with no accountability for results.

When minority committee members asked where the funding would come from the majority responded that the finance committee would determine that.  Funny thing, that committee has already passed HB69 out of its committee with no source of funding!

Rep. Sarah Vance of Homer offered an amendment that would require the districts to post their budgets and audits on-line so citizens could determine where the funding goes, classroom or other functions.  Representative Kopp (R, Anchorage) was concerned with the administrative burden it would put on districts.  Apparently, the public’s need to know is not as important as bureaucrats’ workload.  The amendment failed 4-3.

Rep. Cathy Tilton of Wasilla wanted to amend the bill to fund correspondence students at a full 1.0 factor vice the current 0.9 factor. Why should a correspondence student count less than a brick & mortar student?  

Rep. Chuck Kopp then said, “I firmly believe in school choice and competition. But school choice does not require equal funding.”  Does that mean you can have school choice even within the public K-12 system, but you have to pay for it?

Kopp went even further when he stated, “I’m going to err on the side of fiscal conservatism.”  Yet he wants to spend a quarter of a billion dollars next fiscal year with absolutely no accountability for results. And that quarter billion dollars grows to $807 million by 2031.

Rep. Vance stated that our correspondence students are very cost-effective because they reduce the financial burden on school districts requiring no infrastructure as brick & mortar students do.

The amendment to equitably fund correspondence students failed with Representatives Louise Stutes, Chuck Kopp, Bryce Edgmon and Cal Schrage voting “no.”

Vance then offered a lengthy amendment which would increase the BSA by $300, increase the career/technical education factor from 1.015 to 1.04, reward schools for increasing reading achievement, provide teacher bonuses, and allow the State Board of Education to authorize charter schools.

More importantly, the amendment would provide funding to correspondence students for career/technical education and special needs. It also funds correspondence students at a factor of 1.0.

Rep. Edgmon objected that Vance’s amendment basically mirrored the governor’s current K-12 bill.

Vance’s amendment failed.

Rep. Mia Costello of Anchorage offered an amendment that would provide incentive grants to schools whose students showed an increase in reading proficiency.  The grant would give $450 for each student that showed progress. It would also include students from grades K-6 versus the current K-3.

Costello’s amendment passed with Reps. Vance, Tilton, Costello and Kopp voting “yes.”

The entire $808 million bill passed out of the Rules Committee with Reps. Stutes, Kopp, Schrage, and Edgmon voting “yes”.

And still there was no funding source.

Here is a link to the House Floor session: https://akleg.gov/index.php#tab3.  You can watch here: https://www.ktoo.org/video/gavel/house-floor-session-2025031063/?eventID=2025031063