Volume 34, No.7
March 28, 2008
Click here for a look at a list of education-related bills.
Latest Prediction Cuts $96 Million
From Governor’s Education Budget Proposal
The Legislative Fiscal Office’s latest figures suggest the Legislature needs to trim $96 million from the governor’s budget as it crafts the education budget. It is an unusual scenario for lawmakers to have fewer dollars to appropriate than the governor suggests and an uncomfortable one. However, when the House Education Committee meets April 9 on the education budget, fewer dollars are the harsh reality it faces.
AASB agrees with the newspapers recent coverage of the distasteful choice facing lawmakers who must make critical education funding choices in the next month. It is regrettable when members of the education family wrangle to protect their share of education funding. Nobody likes it because it is fundamentally wrong to have to choose between K-12 students and those seeking higher education. However, it is a gross disservice to act as if K-12 has equal capacity to bear across the board cuts.
Lawmaker “fairness” to K-12 and higher education students is not straightforward when the two systems are not equal; the state’s obligation to each is quite different. K-12 is compulsory. Higher education is not. K-12 campuses struggle for adequacy. Higher education campuses compete for excellence. K-12 relies on state funding for up to 80 percent of its budget. Higher education supplements up to 20 percent of its budget with state funding. Both are critical to Alabama’s future. Yet the first step for all of our children is the basic foundation in K-12.
Protecting K-12 means protecting education jobs and basic operations by preserving the governor’s budget recommendations for K-12. As a starting point, the House Education Appropriations Committee will use the governor’s proposal to craft the FY-09 budget. That proposal works toward aligning dollars with the percentage of public students served. It allocates 69 percent of the funding to K-12, which serves 77 percent of all public students. That 69 percent will reap less than the governor intended because available revenues continue to drop. However, 69 percent is the allocation K-12 urges lawmakers to preserve.
A few lawmakers have raised the possibility that budgets cannot be completed during the regular legislative session and will require a special session in September.
Legislative leaders indicate that is not their plan and recognize that it would be devastating to local schools not to have a budget by May.
Schools Cringe at Potential $4 Cost Per Gallon;
Fuel Proposals Further Hurt School Buses
With the threat of gas prices reaching $4 per gallon by Memorial Day weekend, school officials worry about keeping school buses running. The governor’s proposal slates $332 million for transportation which includes $32 million for fuel. That figure was based on an estimated $3 per gallon of diesel fuel that no longer will fulfill the need.
Two bills are pending that would add insult to injury for schools’ fuel costs. H.518 and H.722 would add significant costs to school systems and the ETF. The bills would change the collection point of fuel taxes and repeal sections of the code that specifically exempt school boards from paying fuel taxes. The net effect to school boards would be higher fuel costs to locals and the ETF that could rob dollars from instructional areas to pay for approximately $1 million in additional costs for bus fuel statewide. In addition, it would place an administrative burden on school boards to pay the state portion of the fuel taxes and file for reimbursement, a costly and cumbersome proposition.
House to Consider New P.E. Requirements
at Great Cost to Schools & Students
A bill to require weekly minimums for physical education for elementary and high school students may be on the House agenda next week. The proposal would cost the education trust fund an estimated $46.8 million to implement for high schools alone. If H.83 passes without accompanying funding, school boards would have to pick up the tab locally for the unfunded mandate. Local school boards already are forming worst-case scenarios for budget shortfall predictions in their school systems. Neither the state nor locals can afford the financial impact of H.83.
For students, the new requirement threatens their course offerings and would compromise their ability to take advanced courses, electives, band and career tech options. Although H.83 is a simple proposal at first glance, its potential impact is very complicated and expensive.
Local school boards urge House members to oppose H.83 on the House Floor next week.
$15,000 Bid Law Threshold Approved by Senate Committee
The Senate Fiscal Accountability & Responsibility Committee Wednesday approved a bill to raise the minimum threshold for requiring the competitive bid process to $15,000. S.364, sponsored by Sen. Parker Griffith, was approved by a 4-0 vote with 3 abstentions. Abstaining were Sens.: Ben Brooks, Scott Beason and Jabo Waggoner.
The current bid threshold of $7,500 was set in 1994, and the proposal adjusts the figure for inflation. School boards join superintendents, the state Department of Education, League of Municipalities and others in supporting passage of H.442/S.364. H.442 has already passed the full House and is pending assignment to a Senate committee.
Other proposals are pending which do not get the job done to help schools with an outdated competitive bid law. Urge senators to support the $15,000 threshold in H.442/S.364.
10-Mill Bill Revisited by County Commissions
The House Thursday approved H.349, a bill to clarify when administrative costs could be assessed when taxes are collected under Amendment 778, the 10-mill requirement. Under the original amendment, no administrative costs could be assessed on tax collections to bring any school system to the minimum 10-mill level. H.349 seeks to remove that prohibition for any future tax collections brought under the amendment. As a proposed constitutional amendment, H.349 must be approved by a 3/5 vote in each chamber. It does not require the governor’s signature, but it must be approved by voters.
“Add Back” Statute Revenues Necessary
for Governor’s Education Budget Baseline
The House Education Appropriations Committee Wednesday approved H.350, a bill addressing an “add back” statute originally passed to close specific corporate loopholes. The bill, coupled with an Alabama court ruling, would increase tax receipts to the ETF by an estimated $26 million in 2008 and by an estimated $41 million in 2009. The committee added language addressing several additional corporate tax revenues that may add an estimated $25 million to the ETF by 2010.
The anticipated 2008 and 2009 revenue has already been figured in the baseline of available dollars appropriated in the governor’s education budget. Should H.350 fail to pass during the legislative session, the education budget would have to be cut accordingly.
Local Chambers Pushing for School Start Date
Reports have surfaced that local chambers of commerce are organizing support for H.179/S. 241, the uniform school start date bills. School boards currently set the school calendar, driven by academic achievement and accommodating local preferences in the community. Every school board now can adapt its calendar to community wishes, including adopting the start dates imposed by the bill, without mandating it on all school systems.
School boards around the state have passed resolutions in recent years opposing the legislation and been very active communicating their support of a locally controlled school calendar with lawmakers. However, a number of freshman lawmakers may not have been contacted about the issue during their tenure at the state house.
AASB encourages school board members and superintendents to write or call their local house member opposing H.179. Enclose a copy of your board resolution and explain the process of how you determine your school calendar. Demonstrate the demands and constraints for 180 instructional days.
Members of the House Education Policy Committee are Reps.: Yvonne Kennedy, chair; Terry Spicer, vice chair; Mike Ball; Alan Baker; Barbara Boyd; Priscilla Dunn; Lea Fite; Mac McCutcheon; Joseph Mitchell; John Robinson; Tommy Sherer; Harry Shiver; Allen Treadaway; Cam Ward and Henry White.
H.179 requires schools to begin on or after the third Monday in August (if there are five Mondays) or on or after the second Monday in August (if there are four Mondays) and to end the Friday before Memorial Day.
School Nurse Law Update
H.317/S.55 would provide authority for school systems to employ (LPNs) licensed practical nurses under the supervision of registered nurses. The law change is necessary to comply with current practice and serve student health needs.
New Proposal Adds Regional Child Nutrition Staff
H.767 would require the employment of a service center nutritionist in each of the 11 in-service centers in Alabama. Child nutrition program directors in local schools would submit proposed monthly menus for each school. Regional nutritionists would review the menus, complete nutritional analyses, and offer improvement suggestions. It requires a minimum state salary schedule to be funded by the annual budget act.
Bill Outlines Use of One-Month Reserves
The Senate Education Finance & Taxation Committee expects to consider S.91 next week. S.91, sponsored by Committee Chairman Hank Sanders, would codify when school systems may access the one-month reserve as required by the School Board Fiscal Accountability Act. The bill outlines the circumstance as either a year of proration or reduction in state funding. School boards are working with the sponsor to include situations when significant reductions of local funding occur.
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For education-related bills & information
www.alabamaschoolboards.org
On education funding and policy decisions,
local perspective can make a BIG difference.
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15 Days remain in the
Regular Legislative Session
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