Governor's budget falls far short of fully funding education

Spectrum

By Dan Walker

Every election season we hear it. "I'm pro-education." "We need to fully fund education." These are promises that come easily to the lips of candidates for state office, and an easy claim for governors and state legislators once they are elected. They are strong phrases, rich in rhetoric without clean distinction of meaning. On March 5, Gov. Frank Murkowski presented a budget that proposed cutting $26.7 million from education spending. This is a 3.4 percent cut in the total funds available to staff and operate Alaska's schools. Then he told us that Alaskan education is fully funded. He wants us to believe, just as the legislature wanted us to believe last year, that he is pro-education. But he doesn't back up it up with educational funding support.

Alaska's school districts are expected to run quality schools staffed with highly qualified teachers, leave no child behind, hold all students to high academic standards, and prepare students for the world of work. We are expected to teach them how to be responsible citizens who vote and regularly volunteer in their community and don't smoke, drink, or drive or boat dangerously. What do schools need to accomplish all of that? What does fully funding education actually mean?

Until recently, individual school districts limited their "need" to match the dollars provided by the state, often at the price of larger classes, minimized programs, underpaid teachers, and deteriorating buildings. Today, we have clearly defined needs, needs defined by state statute and federal regulations. These include placing a highly qualified teacher in each classroom, making sure all students can read by third grade, can perform above average on rigorous national standardized tests, and can pass the High School Graduations Qualifying Exam. Schools are charged with helping students meet state standards in language arts, math, geography, history, government, art, science, health, world language, technology, employability, and information literacy. We are also charged with safely and legally transporting students to safe, drug- and alcohol-free schools that conform to all IDEA, OSHA, and ADA requirements.

According to the Educational Adequacy Study of 2001, "An adequate education shall provide all students opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare them to take a productive role in society." This study added the following needs to the list: well-maintained facilities, attention to diverse needs of students, partnerships between schools, families, and the community, appropriate technology, and access to age-appropriate activities. Until the resources to meet these needs for all of Alaska's children are met, education is not fully funded.

There are short- and long-term issues here. In the short term, we need to raise the base student allocation and inflation-proof it. The consumer price index for Anchorage rose approximately 30% from 1990 to 1999, while the legislature increased the base student allocation by about 5%. Increases since then have been minimal. In 2002, inflation-proofing the Permanent Fund cost more than $700 million, more than the total spent on K-12 education, which continues without inflation proofing. Until the education formula is inflation-proofed, it is not fully funded.

In the long term, we need to determine what it would actually cost to provide for the true educational needs of the state and fund those costs. The application of the resource cost model was suggested in 1981 and ignored because of politics. The resource cost model identifies the cost of providing the various elements of the educational program (the educational need). The cost of education at a given school is then determined by local enrollment, school size, and the variations in costs of required materials and services at that location. More recently in 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2002, studies were made to examine the school funding formula. All these studies suggested that state funding was insufficient and out of balance. But the definition of basic need was ignored and little financial relief provided.

Our state government is charged by the Alaska Constitution with the task of defining the educational needs of this state and providing the resources to meet them. The challenge is to determine what it costs to meet these needs in every school in the state--and then providing the resources required. Until such truly pro-education action is taken, the phrase "fully funding education" will be no more that political rhetoric served up to placate the public.

Dan Walker teaches social studies and language arts and is in charge of the gifted program at Seward Middle/High School. He came to Alaska with his parents in 1958 and attended Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage schools. He has taught in Seward for more than 20 years. In 1999 he was named Alaska Teacher of the Year.