Education Funding

HB 273 enacts the three year education funding plan recommended by the Joint Legislative Education Funding Task Force. The bill makes the following changes to our education funding formula statutes:

Pupil Transportation: Recalibrates the funding for pupil transportation based on the most recent audits by the Department of Education and Early Development. The amounts will be adjusted according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Anchorage. This change allows the funding to match the amounts agreed to in contract. The CPI adjustment will sunset in 2011, which is when the current contracts expire. The projected cost for FY09 is $5,497,600.

Declining Enrollment: New statute that provides for a "step-down" for declining enrollment over three years. If the current ADM decreases by five percent or more from the previous year's ADM, the district can add 75% of the difference in the first year, 50% of the difference in the second year and 25% difference in the third year to their ADM. This step-down mechanism would not apply to a loss resulting from a boundary change under AS 29. The projected cost for FY09 is $422,994.

Intensive Needs Students: Currently, school districts receive five (5) times the BSA for each intensive needs student. HB 273 would increase that amount to Nine (9) times BSA multiplier for fiscal year 2009 (+$35.4 million); eleven (11) times for fiscal year 2010 (+$18 million) and thirteen (13) times for fiscal year 2011 (+$18.3 million) and beyond.

District Cost Factors: HB 273 would phase in 50% of the ISER factors in fiscal year 2009, with the remaining 50% implemented over the four subsequent fiscal years. FY09: +$48.9 million; FY10: +$12.6 million; FY11: +$12.8 million; FY12: +$13 million; FY13: $12.2 million.

Base Student Allocation: HB 273 would increase the BSA by $100 per year from FY08 levels for the next 3 fiscal years. FY09: +22.3 million; FY10: +$22.8 million; FY11: $23.4 million.