The Alabama Association of School Boards is raising concerns on a proposal lawmakers are considering to change the state’s K–12 school funding formula from one based on head count to one based on student needs.
Proponents of the new formula say the AASB’s calculations are inaccurate and premature.
In a newsletter sent to all school board members on Dec. 13, the AASB shared projections of what each school system would receive on a per student basis in 2031, five years after the new model could take effect, if they stuck with the Foundation Program formula versus what districts might receive using a weighted formula that funds students with special needs or from high-poverty homes at a higher rate.
According to their analysis, some districts may not benefit from future revenue increases.
“Lawmakers are being told every system will get more money, but going forward, some systems will not get as much of the revenue growth. This is true, but not the whole story,” AASB wrote.
Potential ‘big losers’
The AASB labeled about one-third of Alabama’s traditional school districts as potential “big losers” because their per-student funding would be much higher under the current Foundation Program formula than what the AASB’s projections showed the districts would get under a needs-based formula. AASB based their projections on amounts originally calculated by Bellwether, the consultant group helping lawmakers with the potential new formula.
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, is co-chair of the joint legislative school funding commission and chairman of the House education budget committee. Garrett is a proponent of the change to a student-weighted formula and argued the AASB’s analysis is flawed.
“I would just say that if the school board association lobbyist had an assignment to report on what the committee has been doing, they would have received a failing grade because they either don’t understand our discussions or they missed the part where we said no system would lose funding if we went forward with this,” Garrett told Alabama Daily News on Monday.
“I don’t know if they just don’t understand or if this is a way of resisting change … the way you thwart legislation is to create confusion, and I don’t know if that was deliberate.”
Garrett said the numbers and models discussed by the study commission were templates, not final recommendations. Garrett also said the commission has asked for and wants education groups’ feedback, but AASB used numbers in its projections that no one has agreed upon.
Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, is also on the funding commission and echoed Garrett’s points, saying that no projections have been finalized.
“No one has gotten that far,” he said.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by Alabama Daily News. It is reprinted with permission.
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