Ed funding boost welcome after years of stagnancy

This editorial originally appeared in the Sunday edition of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

It seems that education funding is never really sorted out in an easy manner. … This year wasn’t much different.

Gov. Sean Parnell asked in his State of the State speech way back in January that the Legislature make education a priority of its annual session this year. He asked that it become the “Education Session” and said he would support a funding increase if it were coupled with approval of some of his education ideas, including expanding vocational education and easing the way for establishment of more charter, correspondence and residential schools.

Legislators muddled along on the subject but couldn’t get the funding increase figured out by the time the session’s scheduled end came at day 90. So they took it and some other subjects into a few days of overtime.

In the end, compromise produced agreement for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1. The Legislature on Friday approved a three-year, $300 million education funding increase, with some of the increase being incorporated into a funding formula component called the “base student allocation,” commonly referred to simply as the BSA, over each of the next three years. The rest of the increase is provided outside of any formula.

How to provide an increase was a major disagreement. Some legislators didn’t want any increase incorporated into the formula, where it essentially becomes a permanent part of the formula that is used to determine annual funding.

It is the first increase in the BSA in three years and will come as much needed relief to school districts. …

State funding is only a part of the funding pie, albeit a big part. The rest, at least in organized areas of the state, comes from local revenue. In Fairbanks, that means property taxes. …

Education funding is usually a tangle and leaves school district officials here and elsewhere in limbo when the Legislature can’t get funding sorted out early in its session. But this three-year program of increases should put school officials at ease — until next time.

– newsminer.com