The Legislature appears to have reached a deal on an education bill. The Senate passed the measure with a $700 increase in per-student funding, almost a 12% boost, on a 19-1 vote at midday Monday, April 28. The House was expected to take up the bill on Wednesday.
House approval would send the bill to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his approval or veto, though the wide margin of legislative approval indicates lawmakers could have enough votes to override a veto.
House Bill 57 started three months ago as a measure to place limits on student cellphone use at school but was quietly modified in in the Senate Finance Committee last week to include a $700 increase in the statutory $5,960 per-student base funding formula to calculate state aid to local school districts.
The increase would boost state funding to Wrangell schools by more than $400,000 for the 2025-2026 school year, covering much — but not all — of the district’s wide budget gap.
The school board is set to meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, at Evergreen Elementary School to adopt its budget for next year.
The Senate Finance Committee offered the $700 increase in the formula after the Legislature failed by a 33-27 vote three days earlier to override the governor’s veto of a $1,000 increase. The intent of finding an increase with wide support among legislators is to overcome a gubernatorial veto, if Dunleavy chooses to reject the measure.
“I am quite excited that we had such a great showing of legislators supporting a significant increase,” Anchorage Democrat Sen. Löki Tobin, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said after the vote by the full Senate on Monday.
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mike Shower said the revised bill doesn’t have all the policies sought by Republicans and Dunleavy, but it contains enough of them and an affordable level of funding.
“I’m going to commend the members … that I think have literally pulled a rabbit out of a hat to make this work,” he said during a press conference after the vote.
HB 57 also increases student transportation funding by 10%, eases regulations for forming new charter schools and — in an amendment adopted Monday — establishes an education task force to review funding and open-enrollment policies.
The state reimburses school districts for the expense of their pupil transportation costs, though often the state money falls short of covering the full cost.
House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, from Dillingham, said the House would vote later Monday to go along with the Senate version of the bill.
The House earlier this legislative session passed the bill for a $1,000 increase in the base per-pupil funding formula by a 24-16 vote, with three Republicans in the minority, including Ketchikan Rep. Jeremy Bynum, joining the 21-member Democratic-led majority.
But the House and Senate support fell far short of the supermajority of 40 of 60 legislators required to override Dunleavy’s veto last week.
Dunleavy did not immediately indicate Monday if he will veto the bill, and legislators in the majority and minority caucuses who have talked to him in recent days said they are uncertain of his intentions.
He will have 15 days to sign or veto the bill after it reaches his desk. The Legislature’s constitutional adjournment deadline is May 21.
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