When Alabama lawmakers convene for the 2025 legislative session on Feb. 4, they’ll have $525 million in surplus Education Trust Fund tax revenue to allocate. This marks the fourth consecutive year legislators will distribute billions in leftover funds, thanks to conservative budgeting of record tax collections.
But an Alabama Daily News analysis of the past four years of supplemental allocations shows K–12 education received only a fraction of this windfall, while higher education and reserve funds have benefited significantly.
Between 2021 and 2024, lawmakers allocated nearly $6.5 billion in supplemental tax revenue from the ETF. Here’s how it was distributed:
- K-12 schools: $980 million (15%)
- Higher education: $1.5 billion (22%)
- Other entities: $1.2 billion (18%)
- Reserve funds: $2.9 billion (45%)
By contrast, the regular ETF budget typically gives K-12 schools 68% of available funds, leaving higher education with 26% and other programs 6%. The supplemental allocations deviate sharply from this norm, raising concerns among K-12 education leaders about whether Alabama’s youngest learners are being shortchanged, especially as schools continue to grapple with rising costs and post-pandemic academic recovery.
While caps on spending in the ETF have long been in place, the supplemental appropriations have only become a major focus recently, as record tax revenues created record surpluses. Advocates for K–12 schools argue that without the caps, what is now supplemental spending would follow the regular budget 68/26 split between K–12 and higher education.
“We had a couple of years where we obviously did not feel like we received our share,” said Ryan Hollingsworth, executive director of School Superintendents of Alabama.
“In the budget, we would have received a whole lot more money than with it being in the supplemental,” he said. “Because we’d have followed the historical division with K–12 and higher ed. So by being in the form of the supplemental, we didn’t get what we would have if it had been in the normal budget process.”
Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey echoed this perspective.
“As a matter of principle, we always advocate for K–12 schools to be treated equally whenever public funds are available and that includes supplemental budgets,” Mackey wrote in a statement to ADN. “For FY26, as in past years, we are requesting supplemental funds be made available to K–12 and higher education closely following the split of the regular budget.”
Supplemental revenue was invested strategically, Garrett says
House Education Budget Chair Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, said legislative leadership prioritized strategic, one-time investments to address the state’s pressing needs.
“We certainly do consider how much of it’s going to higher ed, how much is going to K–12, how much is going to community college, how much is for other workforce development type projects,” Garrett explained. “We do look at all of that. But we don’t really have any hard rule that a certain percent has to go to a particular bucket.”
Garrett emphasized that supplemental funds were invested in ways designed to improve the state’s future.
“At the end of the day, we’re trying to look at how we can best spend the money to have the best impact on improving, moving the state forward,” he said. “Whether that be in the workforce, whether that be in educational outcomes or whether that be in (school) security.”
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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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