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2007 Legislative Session

2007 Legislative Priorities

Funding

State education funding has not kept pace with infl ation and has not been sufficient to fight the financial squeeze districts have suffered from under-funded mandates, competitive employment packages, rising utility and operating costs and changing population patterns. Recent increases to state education funding have largely gone to pay the districts’ employer contributions to PERS and TRS. The success of the Anchorage School District and other Alaska districts in meeting performance standards and requirements dictated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) has been rewarding, but expensive. No room is left for trimming from supplies, and non-instructional budgets. The next cuts will directly affect educational programs for students. Only state policy makers have the responsibility and resources to provide the sufficient and predictable funding education requires in Alaska. To achieve its goals, the Anchorage School Board requires significantly increased state support in nine critical areas:

Full Funding of PERS/TRS Employer Rate Increases
Increase and Forward Fund the Foundation Formula
Debt Reimbursement
Pupil Transportation
Summer Programs & Instruction to Increase Proficiency for all Students
Standards-based Early Learning in Alaska
Student Information System
Compulsory Age of Attendance
Workforce Development

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Full Funding of PERS/TRS Employer Rate Increases

This is the Anchorage School District’s first legislative priority because so many of its challenges depend on resolution of this issue. The $8.5 billion unfunded liability of PERS/TRS should not be paid by school districts and municipalities. The Legislature needs to channel payments for PERS/TRS directly into the retirement systems. Anchorage is facing a bill of
$68.5 million for 2007-08 alone. The sum represents a rate increase for TRS from 26 percent in 2006-07 to 54 percent in 2007-08, and for PERS the rate increase has gone from 24.25 percent to 40.89 percent. Th e $68.5 million is in addition to a $20 million gap between anticipated revenues and expenditures to continue current programs, fund current negotiated agreements and increased fuel and utility costs, leaving the district with an estimated budget gap of $88.5 million. School board members and the district administration believe it is obvious that cutting that amount from the district’s budget will be devastating to the approximate 50,000 students attending Anchorage’s 94 schools. As many as 600 people could lose their jobs, since about 88 percent of the district budget goes to personnel costs. The district is required by law to provide lay-off notices to tenured and certificated employees by March 15.

The Anchorage School Board requests the 25th Alaska Legislature develop immediate and long-term solutions of this issue so that a short-term funding bill can be signed by February 1, 2007, and a long-term legislative solution can be signed into law in May 2007.

The Anchorage School Board also requests that payments go directly to PERS and TRS and not through school district’s budgets, creating unforeseen and unpredictable shortfalls.

Next: Increase and Forward Fund the Foundation Formula »

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