JUNEAU -- Schools around Alaska next year will get more money, as well as an increase in the base student allocation they've long been seeking, but critics of the deal announced Wednesday evening say both amounts are far too small.
"We've just locked in three years of cuts," said Alyse Galvin, with Great Alaska Schools, an informal group of parents and school advocates who were pushing for better school funding.
A conference committee trying to bridge the differences between House and Senate versions of House Bill 278, Gov. Sean Parnell's omnibus education bill has met the last few days trying to hash out differences in some public and some secret meetings. The deal they announced Wednesday evening splits the difference between House and Senate on most issues, but puts other contentious issues off until future studies are done.
Compromises on both sides
"This is truly a good compromise measure, both ways," said Sen. Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, who led the Senate's three members of the six-member conference committee.
The deal puts $300 million over three years into schools, and puts half that amount into the BSA, the per-student aid to districts that carries over from year to year, and which is considered particularly valuable by school districts because of its reliability.
Half the extra money would be allocated within the BSA, and half outside it, again a compromise, said Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, who chaired the House's conference committee team.
That total amount equates to about $100 million extra for schools a year, less than the $125 million that the Senate had sought.
Senate Minority Leader Hollis French, D-Anchorage, said the amount the conference committee settled on was $25 million less than the amount he'd voted against because it was too low.
"We've gone backwards from what the Senate passed just a few days ago, and I was opposed to that for being inadequate. This seems even less so," French said.
But the deal was praised by Gov. Parnell, who in his State of the State address beginning this legislative session, called for 2014 to be the "education session."
After the deal Wednesday he issued a press release praising the deal, and reminding them that in his address he'd asked legislators to "come out of their trenches and reach agreement on more opportunities for our children and on increased education funding. The Education Conference Committee accomplished those two goals," he said.
Some legislators have been reluctant to provide more money for schools, warning of financial hard times to come, but education changes they'd sought are in the conference committee compromise as well, Meyer said.
"My guys aren't totally happy, but there's some good reform items in here," he said, announcing the deal.
While Meyer said the deal would adequately fund education, the Great Alaska Schools team disputed that.
"Everybody agrees that children should be our first priority, but not everybody votes that way," said Galvin.
She and other members of the group have been sitting through meetings and prowling the halls looking for legislators to lobby, and have learned a lot, she said.
"We've been around the (Capitol) building for three and a half weeks, we've seen a lot of dollars going out of this building, and I can tell you they did not always give them priority," she said.
Aid for alternative schooling, ban on Common Core
Some of the money allocated outside the BSA goes to programs popular with certain legislators, such as assistance for home schooling and charter schools.
Rep. Lynn Gattis, R-Wasilla, said parents are lining up to get their students into charter schools, and need more opportunities to do so.
"Clearly there are parents out there saying we want charter schools," she said.
Conference committee members said other issues that were in conflict between the House and Senate were sometimes too complicated to deal with this year. A belief that urban schools and big schools aren't being treated fairly by the funding system known as the "foundation formula" won't be addressed until after professional studies are done to provide information with more data.
A proposal to shift millions in costs from the state to local taxpayers has been eliminated, and but a local school bond reimbursement program will be scaled back from a 60 percent match to a 50 percent match.
A House-sought ban on the national Common Core educational standards made it in the final bill, Hawker said.
"We do have language in here that does put a firewall between us and the intrusion of the Common Core values into the state's education system," Hawker said.
Education Commissioner Mike Hanley said earlier that prohibition would bar the state from doing something that it wasn't doing and had no intention of doing. He did not oppose it.
Contact Pat Forgey at pat@alaskadispatch.com