‘Mini-bus’ education funding and policy bill passes Legislature on last day of session

Energy assistance for schools, repayment of teachers’ student loans, lower required funding from municipalities among provisions passed with bipartisan support

School buses and families drop off students at Auke Bay Elementary School on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, the second-to-last day of classes before summer vacation. (Laurie Craig / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Legislation potentially boosting education funding by nearly $150 million — in classrooms, energy assistance for schools, and other ways — cleared the Alaska Legislature on the final day of this year’s regular session.

House Bill 28 by Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau, who co-chairs the House Education Committee, originated in February of last year as a student loan repayment program for residents who become teachers in Alaska. It was heavily modified by the Senate this spring to include a range of funding and policy provisions, turning it into what some supporters called a "mini-bus" bill.

"I think what is so important about this bill is it focuses on what happens in the classroom," Story said during floor debate Wednesday. "We know when we retain teachers that's so important for student achievement, for those relationships that can help address chronic absenteeism."

Story, in an interview after the floor session, said extra funding in the bill and next year’s budget includes $110 million in per-student funding (boosting the $6,660 Base Student Allocation by hundreds of dollars) and $29 million in energy relief payments to K-12 schools. The bill also includes a three-year pilot loan repayment program as well as energy reimbursements to districts in future years that will be subject to approval by lawmakers.

Another key funding provision caps increases on what municipalities are required to provide to districts to 4% a year. Story said that means the state will have to assume a larger share of total district funding.

Among the policy changes are allowing a district to reopen a school four years after closing rather than seven years. That means Thunder Mountain High School, which was closed and converted to a middle school two years ago as part of a consolidation by the Juneau School District, could reopen two years from now if officials felt there were enough students to again support two high schools.

The bill passed the Senate by a 17-3 vote on Tuesday and the House by a 34-6 vote Wednesday, with the 51 combined votes far more than the 40 necessary to override a veto if Gov. Mike Dunleavy rejects the bill.

Among those voting against the bill Wednesday was Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, who said his concerns include the loan repayment program.

"I'm concerned about elevating education — which is an important element of society — above engineering or sanitation workers, or insurance agents, or slope workers to repay their student loans," he said.

The increases in HB 28 are markedly different than those proposed in another bill by Story — HB 261 — which would allow districts to get per-student funding based on enrollment counts from previous years rather than the current year. She said her goal with that bill is to provide districts with reliable data to base budgets on, since state certification of current-year enrollments often doesn’t occur until spring when many spending decisions — including downsizing employees — have already been made.

However, because most districts statewide have seen enrollment declines in recent years, the practical result in those districts would receive more funding. The Juneau School District, for instance, would see its per-student funding increase by about 34% to nearly $46 million — a major boost for a proposed $82 million operating budget that gets most of its remaining funds from the city. A handful of school districts, including Sitka’s Mt. Edgecumbe High School, would see declines in state funding.

HB 261 passed the House by a 31-9 vote, but stalled in the Senate.

Juneau will see a much smaller boost with the provisions in HB 28, but the funding increases will be more evenly distributed to districts statewide.

Education funding has been one of the primary issues of focus at the Capitol during the past several years, due largely to the per-student formula remaining relatively flat for about 15 years until the Legislature last year raised the $5,960 BSA by $700, at a total cost of about $180 million. Legislators this year approved more than $140 million more toward education, via either the "mini-bus" bill or the enrollment reform bill.

Story said she would have preferred another permanent increase in education funding this session instead of the mostly one-time funding in the "mini-bus" bill, but feels progress was made on convincing lawmakers of the necessity of ensuring districts have stable funding.

"To me permanent education funding is critical to help build confidence in public education and so that it was one-time funding again was disappointing to me," she said. "But I'm so thankful that we've got the one-time funding and we have made progress in this building with legislators understanding how important it is to do permanent funding and how three-year averaging (of previous enrollment) is the way to go about it. Many of them, they like it, and I'm getting more and more support in my conversations, so sometimes it just takes a while for the building to move to do a good policy change."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.