Using past rather than current enrollment to fund schools might have lessened Juneau’s budget crisis, lawmakers told
- Mark Sabbatini
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
Bill by Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau, seeking to improve predictability of education funding gets support from district leaders statewide during initial hearing
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
A Juneau legislator’s bill seeking to make state education funding more predictable for school districts got mostly friendly treatment at its first hearing Monday.
House Bill 261 by Rep. Andi Story, a Democrat who co-chairs the House Education Committee, funds districts based on either enrollment during the previous year or average enrollment during the past three years, whichever is higher. Per-student funding now is determined by current school year enrollment as of October, but it can take months before the state approves those counts and district leaders can then rely on them when drafting budgets.
“Please imagine for a moment that we, the Legislature, must pass a state budget by March 31, but we won't get our revenue projections until May,” Story said while presenting an overview of her bill during an education committee hearing. “But we won't get our revenue projections until May. On top of that, we have to issue notices of non-referrals to staff — otherwise known as pink slips — weeks before the shot-in-the-dark budget is ready.”
“Of course we'd be making blind decisions and dismissing talented staff simply because of the calendar forced on us. We as responsible lawmakers would not tolerate that. Yet we force school districts to budget in such an irrational way and it makes no sense.”
The bill contains several provisions allowing adjustments, such as the number of intensive-needs students a district has. Such students get higher state funding and HB 261 allows districts to adjust their count of such pupils during the current school year to include those arriving after October’s count.
Similarly, alternative schools with 175 students as tallied under HB 261 would be counted as their own school instead of being part of the district’s largest school. Story said that would allow Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School, which has about 90 students, to get funding that might not be available if funneled through Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, which has more than 1,000 students.
Furthermore, districts using a current-year count for funding purposes could base that on the October count or a second count conducted by Feb. 15.
Among the causes of the Juneau School District’s worst budget crisis two years ago was an overly optimistic enrollment projection, school board president Britteny Cioni-Haywood told the committee. While most of the crisis was due to accounting mishaps, she said at least that aspect of the shortfall could have been avoided if the district’s budget had been based on confirmed data.
“That crisis was incredibly difficult on our community and we are still trying to clean up the debris field that was left behind in the wake of very difficult decisions, including repairing relationships and rebuilding trust with staff, students and parents,” she said.
The Juneau Board of Education is drafting its budget now for the fiscal year that starts July 1, based on official enrollment numbers received in December. While that might suggest the district has a few months to shape its budget based on that enrollment, Cioni-Haywood said key aspects — notably staffing, which is about 90% of total costs — actually had to be determined many months ago.
“Districts are required to build budgets and issue staff contracts months in advance before enrollment is certified and the foundation funding is finalized,” she said. “Staffing decisions have to be made in advance of knowing what that revenue is going to be.”
A recommendation to base annual funding according to the provisions in Story’s bill was made in a 2015 school funding study commissioned for the state. A presentation by Story’s office notes 19 states have funding mechanisms that allow for a “better of” funding approach based on single- or multiple-year tallies.
Questions by other committee members were brief and focused largely on what might be comparable funding models in other states Alaska can look at for comparison. Justin Silverstein, lead author of the 2015 study, didn't provide a single state suitable for direct comparison, telling the committee there are lessons to be learned from different approaches used by both large and small states.
“Even states like Colorado, who have bigger districts, still have a lot of small, rural settings much like yourselves,” he said. “I think Vermont uses a two-year average all the time and a couple of other states. I would also suggest that this kind of declining enrollment issue is the kind of the leading issue I would think over the next five to 10 years in states and for school districts. And so you guys are a little bit ahead of the curve to be thinking about a change.”
Juneau is facing a significant and long-term enrollment decline, with a peak enrollment of 5,701 students in 1999 declining to about 3,900 students this year. A report published in 2022 forecasts the district’s enrollment could drop to about 3,000 students by 2032, and a study published in 2024 forecasts a 17% decline in Southeast Alaska’s population by 2050, by far the most statewide.
Cioni-Haywood said the funding changes in HB 261 will make it easier to adjust to those constantly shifting numbers.
“This does not eliminate accountability to enrollment trends,” she said. “Instead, it smooths short-term volatility so districts can adjust responsibly over time without disruptive mid-year corrections.”
Although education officials and many state lawmakers are also seeking an increase in per-student state funding — including adjustments for inflation after a flat $700 increase to what was a $5,960 Base Student Allocation was enacted last year — Cioni-Haywood said the intent of Story’s bill isn’t about obtaining more funds.
“It's about making sure students aren't affected by uncertainty that's built into our current system,” she said.
Similar testimony supporting SB 261 was offered Monday by school district leaders from around the state. The bill is scheduled for another hearing by the committee at 9 a.m. Friday, when public testimony is scheduled to be heard.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
