JUNEAU -- A special legislative committee met for hours Tuesday, trying to hash out education funding, but by late in the evening committee members appeared as far as ever from an agreement.
And some positions, both for and against more money for schools, seemed to be hardening.
Some Republican legislators tried to blame schools themselves for their funding shortfalls, and talked of the needs for radical changes to the state's schools and how they are funded.
"I think we and the public feel that we are not getting the value we want out of our schools," said Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, chairing the conference committee trying to bridge the gap between House and Senate versions of the House Bill 278, this year's omnibus education bill.
And Hawker continued a theme that legislators have been using for several years to justify budget cuts, telling the schools that they're not doing a good enough job, without identifying by what measure they should be measured and how local schools districts should improve what they're doing while cutting staff.
"We want to see some performance improvement before we the Legislature step up and simply write a check essentially rewarding the status quo," Hawker said.
Members of Great Alaska Schools, the parents' group lobbying for more education funding, called the comments and the logic behind them "stunning."
"If we met that standard, why would we need the money at that point? How does that make sense?" asked Alyse Gavlin, one of the group members lobbying at the Capitol.
Within what means?
Hawker and other legislators said Tuesday that Alaska's schools, and state government, needed to "live within our means," and that the state couldn't afford to continue its current funding levels. He and the others did not explain what the state's "means" were and what amount would be considered living within them.
But the state's foundation formula by which state funds are distributed to local school districts, some said, needed to be "fixed," though they didn't explain what they felt was wrong other than it didn't give enough money to the schools and programs that they favored.
Among the options under consideration, the conference committee is funding studies to lead to a re-write of the foundation formula's cost factor and school size factor. The cost factor tries to provide equal funding to urban and rural schools in light of higher rural costs. The size factor provides extra money to smaller schools that don't benefit from economies of scale.
Rep. Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, said the Senate wants to give schools more money than the House does, but doesn't want to put it in the foundation formula's base student allocation that they think is faulty. Meyer, chair of the Senate's side of the conference committee, said senators were willing to put more money into schools for now, at least to hold them harmless, while funding formula studies that may take three years are completed.
"We heard from the public, and from the school districts, that they wanted stability for the next three years, so that's what we've done here," he said.
He said the Senate's plan in House Bill 278 calls for funding equivalent to a $427 increase to the BSA for next year, and that amount continued without changes for the next two years. "We don't plan on changing those numbers for the next three years," Meyer said.
And Meyer said that while senators want that money allocated relatively evenly to schools, they do not want it as part of the foundation formula they consider flawed.
"We plan on studying the formula and trying to fix the formula, and not put any more money into it," he said. "We understand that's a big process and it's going to take several years to do it."
House members sought less money for schools, a $185 increase to the BSA next year, followed by increases of $58 for each of the next two years, for a total increase of $201 over three years.
Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, said schools didn't think that was enough. He said the state's education community has indicated that it needs a $400 increase to the BSA this year, followed by $125 increases in each of the next two years, for a total increase of $650. Hoffman said the Senate proposal falls short of that, the House falls well short. He pointed out that this year was supposed to be the "education session" of the Legislature, according to Gov. Sean Parnell.
"To endorse those low numbers isn't going to be satisfactory," Hoffman said.
'Unsustainable' system 'needs more money every year'
Other legislators had their own plans, some of which involved spending in other ways.
Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, said that non-traditional educational options such as charter schools, home schools and residential schools should get extra money -- possibly saving the state money overall, he contended.
He said Alaska can't afford to keep funding traditional neighborhood schools like it has been doing, but also tried to reassure concerned parents and school advocates. "There is certainly a philosophy embedded in the Senate's approach, they recognize that the mainstay of our education system has been, is and will always be the neighborhood school concept that needs to be funded," he said.
But "there may be other approaches that are not yet being fully utilized or explored that we could possibly look to," he said.
Among the incentives Dunleavy supported in the Senate version of House Bill 278 are financial incentives for the creation of more charter schools and more home schooling.
Alaska must find cheaper ways to educate its children, he said.
"The way the system is set up, it needs more money every year," Dunleavy said. Current spending levels are "unsustainable" and would burn though the state's billions in savings in a few years. "Instead of waiting for things to come apart, let's not wait until we exhaust our reserve" to make changes, he said. He didn't say what level would be sustainable.
Hawker said he would invite Dunleavy to a closed-door meeting of the Republican-led House Majority caucus to present his ideas. Such meetings are not announced to the public.
Public conference committee meetings are expected to resume Wednesday at the Capitol.
Contact Pat Forgey at pat@alaskadispatch.com