Wrangell Sentinel -

The Senate Education Committee on March 13 advanced a bill to increase state funding for public schools, clearing the bill’s first legislative hurdle.

The bill to increase the base student allocation, the per-student formula used to calculate school funding, heads next to the Senate Finance Committee.

The Senate bipartisan majority has named increasing public school funding as one of their top goals for the legislative session, and the measure has support from a broad coalition of education advocacy groups who are warning that districts will be forced to close schools or cut programs with...