Dear Neighbors,

Many of you have contacted me about the Anchorage School District's $26 million deficit and the importance of increasing education funding. Today, the Senate Finance Committee moved a bill to the Senate Floor that would substantially increase education funding in time for districts to avoid layoffs and avoid the substantial cuts many districts have said they'd have to make.

Committee Substitute for SB 35:

• Anchorage School District would receive $27.4 million more next year.
• Increases funding to school districts by $82 million.
• Increases funding to the University of Alaska's operating budget by $5.8 million.
• The per-student funding will increase from $4,169 to $4,576.
• Uses the Constitutional Budget Reserve to pay for the increases.
• Provides critical early funding to K-12 schools and the University. Allows Alaska school boards to prepare next year's school budget with accurate funding information and avoid the cuts they anticipated having to make.
• Helps offset the PRS/TRS increases.
• Reaffirms the Legislature's commitment for our K-12 education system and the University of Alaska by funding education first before any other state service.
• Is a responsible approach to our state's number one priority without “breaking the bank.”

You can find the Committee Substitute for SB 35 at http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/
get_complete_bill.asp?session=23
&bill=SB35. The full title for the bill is CSSSSB 35(FIN).

The only catch to this bill is that we will likely need the Democratic Minority to vote to access the Constitutional Budget Reserve to pay for it. The law requires that three quarters of the legislature must agree to use our savings account – the CBR – to balance the budget each year. You may have heard in the news in previous years that the Legislature cannot finish the budget without the Minority's “CBR Vote” or that the leadership was working on a deal to “get the three-quarter’s vote.” That is what is needed to fund this increase in K-12 and University funding in time to avoid layoffs and cuts to programs.

I urge you to contact all legislators and ask them to support CSSB 35 and to vote to use the Constitutional Budget Reserve to pay for it. Education is a bi-partisan issue and deserves bi-partisan support.

You can find a list of all legislators’ toll-free telephone numbers at http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/
infodocs/tollfree.pdf. Or, use the attached list of legislators’ e-mail addresses to e-mail them.

I hope you will contact all legislators soon!

I am very pleased that the Legislature has been able to find a possible method to keep our highly qualified teachers in the classroom, avoid increasing class sizes, continue to provide services to at-risk students, and continue to provide a quality education to all our students.

I hope I can count on your support and advocacy for this bill.

Sincerely,

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