The House committee tasked with addressing Alaska's fiscal plan hasn't advanced any bills referred to it that would levy new taxes or change the PFD structure. But it did advance a bill that would increase spending on home-schooled students by millions.
to underscore the importance of the Legislature’s work on a fiscal plan that would generate new revenue and resolve a longstanding structural deficit. House Speaker Cathy Tilton said the House’s plan would come out of work done by the House Ways and Means Committee.
Alaska’s school districts this year have called for a significant increase in state funding. Without it, school administrators say they will beteachers and programs, after years of flat funding amid record inflation. But bills to increase the Base Student Allocation, the formula used to calculate state funding per district, have stalled in both the House and Senate finance committees, and time is running out to advance them before the session ends.
“You’d have these kids who would have been in the school and they aren’t there anymore, and that money leaves, but the school needs to pay for the lights to be on, it still has to pay for the cafeteria workers, it still has to pay for the bus drivers, it still has to pay for the custodians, it still has to pay for the upkeep of the building. The teachers may have less students in their class, but those teachers would still need to be there,” said Rep.
The bill also creates new accounting and reporting mandates — requiring correspondence programs to provide an annual report on the way their money is spent. It does not provide any funding to pay for the additional administrative costs.
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