A record-high $12.1 billion education spending package passed through the Alabama Senate on Thursday, as did a bill that would revamp the state’s funding formula to better provide for students who cost more to educate. “It’s off my shoulders now, it’s in the House, so it’s nice to move it on out,” said a relieved-looking Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, who sponsored the four-bill education spending package, as well as the bill revamping the funding model. Orr chairs the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee.
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The spending package the Senate passed included around $2.15 billion in supplemental spending for this year, and a record-high $9.9 billion for fiscal year 2026, a 6% increase over the current year. The 2026 budget includes $6.7 billion for K-12 schools, a 5.9% increase over this year, $2.6 billion for higher education, a 6.7% increase, and $611 million for other entities, an increase of 3.9%. Senate members did not waste time in passing the package, with Sens. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, and Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, being the only lawmakers speaking on the bills, and only to ask Orr to recount any changes made as it made it through a committee, all of which were uncontroversial.
‘We took a big step’
Perhaps most notable of the legislation passed Thursday, Orr said, was Senate Bill 305, known as the Renewing Alabama’s Investment in Student Excellence, or RAISE Act. “We took a big step as a state today in that we established this RAISE Act fund because we’re acknowledging that it does take more to educate children in poverty, or English-language learners, or special education students or gifted students,” Orr told members of the press outside the Senate chamber. “So in doing that, we want to provide more resources to our K–12 education communities and schools and help them do the job that they have to do with additional resources.” Senate Bill 111, among the three supplemental education spending bills the Senate passed, would see $375 million used from the state’s Education Opportunities Reserve Fund used to fund the RAISE Act.
State lawmakers first began looking into overhauling education funding last year with the establishment of new joint legislative committee, gravitating toward what’s known as a weighted student education funding formula. Alabama’s current education funding model, known as the Foundation Program, is considered a resource-based education funding formula, where education funding is allocated based on anticipated costs of resources and inputs. Under this model, education dollars are allocated to school systems based on student populations, with additional per-student funding allocated for special needs students, which under the Foundation Program are assumed to be 5% of the student population.
Looking ahead
Conversely, a weighted student funding formula sees funding allocated based on both the number of students and their specific educational needs, meaning that unlike the Foundation Program, the exact special needs student population is factored into the amount of funding school systems receive. “The research all shows that the additional resources do help move the needle when it comes to the educational process of those types of students,” Orr said. Orr went on to tell Alabama Daily News that he was hopeful the House would take up the education spending bills quickly, given that many state lawmakers were up for reelection next year, and with fundraising beginning in late May, many would like to wrap up the 2025 legislative session sooner rather than later.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Alexander Willis and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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