Alabama Senate approves Education Trust Fund budget amid project debates

The Alabama Senate Thursday approved a nearly $9 billion education budget and a modest round of tax rebates. 

The legislative package, mostly sponsored by Senate Finance and Taxation Education Chair Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, passed with little opposition, but spurred a debate over the size of proposed tax rebates and floor changes to the proposed Education Trust Fund budget and a supplemental appropriation bill.  

Orr’s tax rebate proposal, costing about $273 million, would give resident income tax filers $105. Gov. Kay Ivey had proposed rebates of $400. 

Orr said that the difference between the governor’s proposal and his version would go into the “Educational Opportunities Reserve Fund,” established by SB 101.

“Half a billion dollars is going into a savings account which is where we’re going to put the rebate money to take care of future needs, particularly because we’re concerned about the future of the economy and we have a lot of programs that we need to keep funding, such as the Numeracy, the Literacy Act, the teacher matrix,” Orr said. 

Senate Democrats said the benefit of a $100 rebate would pale next to the $275 million expense of distributing it.  

Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, said $100 amounts to one bag of groceries, which is not enough to feed a family.

“$275 million is too much money to just throw to the wind giving everybody a fish, and tomorrow I’m still hungry,” she said.

Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, called the $105 an “insult” to the taxpayers. 

“We live in a microwave society,” he said. “Okay, people don’t use the stove no more to cook food slow and get a good texture out of the seasoning that they put into their food to cook it slowly

Orr argued that taxpayers would be happy about conservative spending in a few years. In conversation with Singleton, Orr said that local school districts will be in trouble after the ESSER funds run out in the coming years when they will no longer be able to afford the staff with the federal funds.

Singleton told Orr that the Alabama Legislature, unlike the federal government, cannot “print” money. He said that he will take the rebate and he picks pennies up off the ground, but he wishes the rebate would not go to him.

Singleton said they should be more like Massachusetts, which consistently ranks at or near the top of public education rankings. Massachusetts spends roughly $8,000 more per pupil than Alabama, according to the U.S. Census.

The $8.8 billion budget, about $537 million higher than this year’s budget, increases the allocation to colleges and universities by $105.9 million (roughly 7%); the K-12 Foundation program by $211.3 million (roughly 4.96%); the community college system by $35.53 million (roughly 7%); funds for transportation by $26.6 million, (roughly 6.6%); and the department O&M increased $510,995, (1.7%).

The budget includes 2% pay raises for education employees. Teachers with more than nine years’ experience will get an additional 1% pay increase.

Funding changes?

Orr told reporters after that there has been discussion about changing the funding model for Alabama schools. Orr described a model that sounded similar to the Weighted Student Funding  model, which applies weights to student need categories to calculate how much funding is needed in an area.

“I know what we’ve discussed and even done some exploratory work in that it’s a model where you would take a baseline amount for all students and then you would to look at certain factors like poverty or special needs or whatever the student populations reflected, and then appropriate accordingly on that,” Orr said.

On the floor, Orr substituted a new bill for the Education Trust Fund, which, among other measures, includes funding for school support staff and school nurses.

Orr said the goal is to bring support staff into a certain hourly rate. He said that some school systems are already there due to local funding.

The senator also filed a substitute for a supplemental appropriations bill. The new bill added more than $10 million dollars to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, the agency responsible for higher education in the state. It also increases funding for  National Guard Educational Scholarships by $2.6 million; adds $270,000 for the Best and Brightest STEM Pilot Program, an incentive program for STEM graduates; increased deferred maintenance funding by $5 million and adds $4.5 million for Retain Alabama, which helps people get back into college.

It also increases funding for the University of West Alabama for technology needs in Selma University, the Black Belt Scholars program and more money for deferred maintenance.

The lieutenant governor’s grant program was cut $5,000,000.

The substitute also allocates funding to the Department of Human Resources for the Beacon House, the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Indian Affairs scholarship program.

Singleton sought $2.2 million a proposed speciality school for healthcare training in Demopolis. He said that taxpayers could receive $103 rather than $105.

Orr urged the Senate to vote against the amendment, saying there is $500,000 for a study of where to put the healthcare school in the supplemental.

The amendment failed 8-20.

“I would like to thank this body for telling little babies in West Alabama that they don’t mean nothing to you all, but these other special projects that we got out here means everything and that’s why we going to always be number 50,” said Singleton.

Local concerns

Senators from the Montgomery area also tried to secure money first proposed by Gov. Kay Ivey for economic development in Montgomery. Al.com reported was related to the water park currently in development. 

Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, said he had “geographical” concerns, saying that it’s important for the people who go to Maxwell Airforce Base in Montgomery have a good experience in their time there, including but not limited to the schools in Montgomery.

Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, said the funding was about economic development in the area. He said he’s concerned that resources have not gone to the capital city.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman submitted a “friendly amendment” and said he believes there was an “innocent” omission of Lawson State Community College in the Alabama Centers for Rural Healthcare Opportunities.

Orr said there are two other colleges he mistakenly omitted, and Orr confirmed the amendment was friendly. He said that the other schools, which he did not name, would be added in the House of Representatives.

In response to a question from Barfoot, Orr said he was unclear whether that included conversion charter schools. Barfoot said the “language” was satisfactory to him because of legislative intent that would include conversion charters.

Orr told the new members that this is an “unprecedented budget.”

The bills move to the House of Representatives.