Opinion - Editorial: K - 12 Education Funding

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Session:
State Capitol, Room 514
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
Forwarded from FBX: 451-5501
Juneau Phone: (907) 465-3709
Fax: (907) 465-4714

Personal Web Site:
www.garywilken.com

Interim:
1851 Fox Ave.
Fairbanks, AK 99701
Phone: (907) 451-5501
Fax: (907) 456-4714

For Immediate Release: February 5, 2001

As a freshman legislator in 1997, I had passing knowledge of a statewide concern about the public school foundation funding formula. I saw that others had addressed this issue, so as chair of the Health, Education and Social Services Committee, I thought I would follow-up on their efforts. They knew, as did many across the state, that the General Fund dollar support for K-12 education had increased 54 percent since 1988, while the student count had increased but 26 percent. School districts and legislators from around the state were asking, "Where'd the money go?"

We found a complex formula that had been created in 1987 by a Legislature which was under great public and legal pressure to come up some method to fund K-12 education. We found a formula that was based on an antiquated funding method, based on incomplete 1984 data, and that data had been adjusted politically around a legislative committee table.

Senate Bill 36 was a watershed for education funding reform in our state. Many will suggest that it is not perfect and I agree. However, there are few who, once they know the basis upon which this reform took place, will suggest that the "old 1987 formula" is the better way to distribute over $650 million of the people's money to fund K-12 education across our state.

Opponents of the reform would like for you to believe the purpose of SB 36 was to steal money for one part of our state at the expense of another. Poppycock. Consider these facts:

Only one school district actually saw its funding decrease under SB 36 -the North Slope Borough (which continues to be required to match its state contribution at a fraction of the rest of organized Alaska).

Of the school districts which received greater than a 5 percent increase in their state contribution as a result of SB 36, 54 percent were urban, 46 percent were rural.

In addition, a transition provision in SB 36 (known as the 60/40 floor) allows school districts that were advantaged by the 1987 formula to gradually transition to the new formula. If the last three years' funding experience is any indication of the future, it will take an average of almost 20 years for all school districts to fall under the new SB 36 formula. A generous transition allowance indeed.

The foundation formula is not perfect; there is still work to be done. But to suggest that it is unfair to one area of our state as compared to another is a statement based purely in politics without regard for either history or fact.

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