SB 36

Alaska's Education Policy Needs Balance

When the Legislature complete the foundation formula rewrite, we will have a simpler formula to understand and one that:

• is based on real costs
• treats Alaskan's fairly
• provides for all of our children

You need to remember, the "winners" in this bill have been the "losers" for the last decade. It is your child who has been losing. The Legislature is working to make us all winners.

Real Costs

• McDowell Report identified costs based on audited statements from school districts
• Currently, ACD's (area cost differential) are based on 1985 household costs
• SB 36 DCF's (district cost factors) based on actual cost of operating schools
• McDowell Report identified costs based on audited statements from school districts
• McDowell Report reveals 70% of education costs are same in rural or urban Alaska

^70% / _30%

Instructional Costs Requirement

• Currently no requirement for how much public money actually goes into the classroom.
• SB 36 caps administrative costs
• SB 36 requires minimum 70% funds be expended in classroom instruction
• McDowell Report found that actual per teacher costs of most districts are similar
• McDowell Report found that 70% of costs to educate are same in rural or urban areas

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Pupil Transportation

• Current formula does not treat all district transportation programs the same
• Some are reimbursed at 100% of costs
• Others are reimbursed at 65% of costs
• SB 36 requires minimum reimbursement for districts at 90% of costs

Disparate Wealth

• A "Quirk" in current formula lets wealthy districts pay much less than others even though they have much greater capacity to fund education
• North Slope Borough residents pay $50 tax on average home - but Fairbanks residents pay $760 in taxes for same home
• SB 36 provides for a fairer distribution

Funding Community

• Current formula allows some districts to start a new count for every "community" within a district
• Nearly half of some districts' funds are result of this "new" start in the count
• Current formula provides for a "unique geographic location" - not well defined
• Some districts don't meet principals of concept - but receive funds anyway
• McDowell Report recommends adopting schools as funding units - not communities

Correspondence Programs

• The Statewide correspondence program is funded at 0.65 per student
• Costs to districts for correspondence is more than costs of Statewide program
• SB 36 funds a consistent 1.0 for districts

Instructional Units

• Currently complex formula
• 2 pages of statutes
• Only used by 7 states
• SB 36 simpler per student dollar

Categorical Funding

• Has become a money chase
• Was intended to pay for impact of special needs students
• The growth in bilingual/bicultural is 4 times the student growth rate
• Some districts as high as 58% more public funding
• Current statewide average = 19%
• SB 36 = maximum 20%

Comparison

The following shows a comparison between school districts based on a per student allocation under the old and new formula. You can clearly see that while some areas are reduced, they are still receiving a huge amount of money per student compared to other areas.