State House passes massive funding boost to Department of Education with no funding source

By
Suzanne Downing
-
38

On a vote of 24-16, the Alaska House passed House Bill 69, boosting the per-student funding for the education establishment by $1,000, the largest increase to the base student allocation in Alaska history. There is no funding source but the low-hanging fruit of the people’s Permanent Fund dividends, or possible oil taxes that are being proposed by Democrats.

Voting in favor of the bill were all the Democrats and those who joined the Democrat-led majority: Robyn Burke, Ashley Carrick, Maxine Dibert, Bryce Edmon, Ted Eischeid, Zack Fields, Neal Foster, Alyse Galvin, Andrew Gray, Carolyn Hall, Sara Hannan, Ky Holland, Nellie Jimmie, Andy Josephson, Chuck Kopp, Donna Mears, Genevieve Mina, Cal Schrage, Andi Story and Louise Stutes.

Three members of the Republican minority voted for it: Rep. Justin Ruffridge of Soldotna, Rep. Julie Coulombe of south Anchorage and Jeremy Bynum of Ketchikan.

The bill introduces a permanent $1,000 increase to the Base Student Allocation (BSA), ensuring greater financial stability for school districts across the state. Alongside the funding increase, HB 69 implements targeted education reforms aimed at enhancing school choice, accountability, and operational efficiency.

“HB 69 is not just about funding—it’s about strengthening Alaska’s public education system for the long term,”said Speaker Bryce Edgmon. “This bill is the product of good-faith negotiations, reflecting input from legislators, the administration, and stakeholders across the state.”

Except there is no funding source, which calls into question the “good-faith” aspect mentioned by Edgmon.

Key Provisions of HB 69:

  • Base Student Allocation Increase – Permanently raises the BSA by $1,000, providing a crucial financial boost to public schools.
  • Open Enrollment Policy – Says it expands school choice but actually reduces choice. It actually dials back parental choice, by putting kids who live outside a district behind military kids and siblings of kids who are enrolled in a school. Destination school districts have subjective control over whether outside-district students can enroll.
  • Charter School Burdens Increased – Increases administrative costs for charter schools from 4% to 8%, by allowing a district to double the amount of charter school budget they can retain for administrative overhead.
  • Education Task Force – Establishes a legislative task force to assess school funding and policy improvements on an ongoing basis; task forces such as this always push for more funding. Adds to bureaucracy. The only members of the task force are the education committee members who are already responsible for this. The membership of the task force is tilted toward Democrat-led majority.
  • Correspondence Study Program Oversight – Introduces annual reporting requirements on parents about enrollment, spending, and academic performance. It makes the parents file numerous reports with the state, which could drive people away from homeschooling.
  • Wireless Device Policy – Requires school districts to implement policies regulating student cell phone use during school hours.

There is no funding support for this measure, which ties the hands of future legislatures. The estimated cost is an additional:

$326.3 million in fiscal year 2026,

$501.3 million in FY27,

$647.7 million in FY28.

The total cost is currently at $1.47 billion in additional funding over three years, on top of the existing BSA funding level of about $1.2 billion each year. These numbers are from the original bill, but have probably changed; there is no fiscal note with the current bill, so no way to know at this time what the cost is.

The amounts could change as the Senate considers the legislation, which has been fast-walked by the House.

McCabe: An important update on education funding and what HB 69 would cost over three years

38 COMMENTS

    • I sure hope the governor will be vetoing this! It looks to me like there are no strings attached. Spend spend and spend the only answer they seem to have with no accountability correct me if I’m wrong, Alaskans receive more money than anywhere else in the US And have the lowest rated education in return. Shame on these representatives!

  5. Elected idiots. We desperately need to rid ourselves of RCV and cheat by mail. I just cannot fathom their constituents are that dumb to elect these people.

  7. Plug the $3940 figure from 1999 into an inflation calculator. In today’s money that is over $7,600. This bill results in a figure far less than that.

    • On another article here we were recently told by a commentator that inflation is caused by supply and demand. Since the demand for this type of education has dropped since 1999 and the supply of students has also dropped since 1999 why should the cost continue to go up?

    • Plug what I made hourly in 1999 and it’s nowhere where I should be paid hourly.
      I bust my azz and smile at work everyday.
      I give 2 craps about how they want this increase they’ve shown no education test score increases in over a decade. That tells me they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Theirs always some excuse we rank 51 out of 53 and the 2 we rank ahead of aren’t even states their provinces. Them pushing common core over 24 yrs ago screwed everything up. Kids are confused and drastically not being taught correctly but having up to 4-5 vice principals who collect $95k a yr doing nothing to educate but twiddle their thumbs sip coffee and smile while the teachers all fend for themselves every yr it’s the same excuse but money being thrown at it isn’t showing any improvements so now what do you have to say cause your clueless

    • Jeremiah, did you see the note from Legislative Finance that showed K12 education funding has increased 34% since 2006? That’s because many factors have been added to the funding formula and other factors such as the Intensive Needs have been increased from 5X the BSA to 13X the BSA. That factor now is more than $78,000 per IN student.

      Did you also notice that our K12 kids’ achievement scores have gone down since 2006? Seems to be a correlation here, eh?

  8. Very frustrating! We’re already paying around $20,000 per student- when is enough, enough? In these times of declining enrollment, we need to be ‘right-sizing’ our schools, not throwing money at ’em! Say goodbye to your PFD, Alaskans!

  9. The uni-party knew the money wasn’t there to support the teachers unions spending bill. They planned on stealing the money from the same stupid Alaskan’s that elected them. Next year they will give you half the normal PFD and the masses will be happy again. Soon the PFD will be zero and you will be paying a taxes, because of how you voted.

  10. The education bureaucracy is churning out more and more young people unprepared to compete in our economy. They eventually end up homeless and dependent. If we don’t go to free-market vouchers our entire economy will collapse in dysfunctional failure. It’s long past time we stopped viewing this as a kooky idea. Its inevitable that denial will no longer work.

  11. Well there you have it in black and white. MRAK readers put new big-screen TVs and snow machines before the education of their children.

    • Bring back the Whidbey that would at least to try to make a logical point even if it was skewed left, this version is little more than repeating lazy talking points with no sound reasoning.

      MRAK readers support actual results oriented education of their children instead of blindly funding a failing institution that has shown decades of decline no matter how much funding is increased and there is no reason to believe that throwing more money at the problem will fix it. I’d be willing to bet that overall MRAK readers have better educated children than the average public school educated child.

        • I advocate for personal responsibility, accountability, fiscal responsibility, and smaller limited government in all aspects…but you already know that about me.

          From your home, in a state that is not Alaska, you deem yourself fit to demand others pay for your beliefs. You think you know better than Alaskans how they should spend their money, you think government knows better than the individual. You do not even contemplate the fact that there are Alaskans who would prefer their children not freeze to death or starve to death. But you from your far removed home in a far away state, and in classic leftists belief, think that you know better. You assume that all Alaskans would rather spend their money on big screen tv’s and snowmachines instead of educating their children, that is no doubt based more upon your personal bias than it is upon fact.

          I advocate for Alaska, and Alaskans. You, well, not so much.

  13. How much does it cost per student per year in public schools? I have seen numbers well over $10K.
    Homeschooling costs about $1K per student.
    .
    Public school educated students are border line illiterate.
    Homeschooled kids read above their grade level.
    .
    Tell me again how awful homeschooling is.

    • Good luck teaching your children AP calculus, chemistry, physics or a difficult foreign language at home. If you want them to get into good universities, they’ll need stuff like this, and they’ll need to compete at a national level. Good luck to all.

      • Oh Dog, last year 32% of Alaska students were proficient in English language arts and math, and less than 37% were proficient in science. Good luck to all.

      • Quit projecting your own incompetencies onto homeschool parent-at-large. Had no problem helping my homeschooled kid learn these subjects (and more), including the dual enrolment at U of Alaska. Said kid who also subsequently got into the aerospace engineering program at Cal Tech (one of the most academically competitive schools in the country). And he is a white Judeo-Christain values raised male, so due to the all the college entrance DEI bullsh*t it was an uphill climb to get in even with his stellar SAT and ACT scores and mastery of not only his secondary-school subjects but also the post-secondary subjects taken at U of A.
        Piss off dog.

  14. This is what we get when we have a State Legislature that is populated with retired and working employees of the public education racket and public service unions. Ain’t never gonna change!

  15. His is because the carpetbaggers from America are inured to taxes, the mere suggestion we don’t pay state income taxes is anathema to them. By passing this, it is an excuse to float in a tax to pay for it. Too many outsiders here won’t vote or will vote for a tax on themselves.

  16. Bryce Edgemon is an Idiot this dies not strength education if there is no accountability. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. This is nothing more then trowing money at a problem expecting a different result. That is the definition of insanity

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