Borough picks up more local school costs as state balks at adjusting aid for inflation

It’s a long-term trend, but more and more the state of Alaska is passing the buck for local school support to Matanuska-Susitna Borough taxpayers.

Other school districts around the state are in the same boat.

The key problem is that for years successive governors and Legislatures have not adjusted state support for schools for inflation, Matanuska-Susitna Borough assembly members were told in a briefing by the school district in mid-December.

The dollar amounts are the same but the purchasing power is less. “Flat funding” of the Basic Student Allowance, or BSA, the formula in the state school foundation program that determines how much per-student state aid school districts get, has resulted in a 12 percent reduction in value since 2017, which was the last year in which an inflation adjustment was made, Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Randy Traini told the borough assemblys.

The BSA was set at $5,930 in 2017 and hasn’t changed since. Adjusted for inflation, this equals $5,248 per student now. Concerns over rising costs are increasing with higher inflation being seen across the nation.

In state aid for pupil transportation, or school buses, an important matter for Mat-Su, the amount provided, again per-pupil, hasn’t changed since 2016, resulting in a 12.5 percent devaluation of the funds provided, Trani told the assembly.

The state paid $1,005 per pupil for school bus support in 2016 and the amount hasn’t changed since. Inflation-adjusted, this now is the equivalent of $880 per pupil in purchasing power.

The number of students in Mat-Su schools rose in the early half of the decade but flattened out and hasn’t changed recently except for 2020, when COVID-19 hit.

In 2021 the school district paid out $17.85 million to support school busing with the state providing $14.68 million to support this. In prior years has paid in the $16 million per year range, but even then not covering all costs for school busing by the borough.

State transportation aid dropped in 2021 because there were fewer in-class students because of COVID-19, which affected the state reimbursement.

But while funding is flat costs are rising in some cases faster than ordinary inflation, particularly for school bus operations where te school district is experiencing escalating fuel and labor costs.

However, against the backdrop of fewer state dollars the required contribution of the Mat-Su borough for overall school support is rising because the borough’s population is growing.

In 2017 the borough was required to fund 13.82 percent of local school costs. That is now 16.89 percent because of the flat-funding of school aid.

“The borough is paying a bigger portion, so this amounts to cost-shifting,” to local taxpayers, Trani told the assembly.

In other developments at the assembly and school board meeting, Mat-Su Public Works Director Terry Dolan told the assembly that construction of the new Houston Middle School is on track.

If the schedule can be maintained and supply-chain problems don’t delay delivery of materials the new school should be ready to open next winter.

Steel is now being erected at the school with a goal of getting the structure fully enclosed and with the roof on in February so that interior work can begin, Dolan told assembly members.

One concern is that spot shortages of roofing materials nationally could affect the schedule, he said.

The original Houston middle school was heavily damaged in the 2018 Southcentral Alaska earthquake. Its reconstruction is being funded by a combination of funds from insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a $9 million appropriation made by the state Legislature earlier this year.