MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Education experts outlined the shortcomings of Alabama’s current model for funding education, which included falling per-student spending and inefficient support for students with special needs, in a presentation given to lawmakers Thursday.
“Alabama’s current system, the Foundation Program, is less generous compared to your peer states,” said Jennifer Schiess, a senior partner with the nonprofit organization Bellwether, which works to improve student outcomes for systemically marginalized groups.
“It hasn’t really kept pace with inflation in recent years, (and) it doesn’t really sufficiently address student needs.”
The presentation was part of the Alabama Legislature’s efforts to study its current education funding model known as the Foundation Program, which funds basic school functions, including teacher salaries, on a per-pupil basis and based on anticipated costs of expenses.
Lawmakers are also hoping their efforts, spearheaded by a new joint legislative committee, will help them determine whether they should adopt an alternative funding model such as a student-based model, wherein school districts receive funding based on the number of students, with funding multipliers for students with special learning needs.
Alabama’s current education funding model, which hasn’t been updated in about 30 years, saw per-student spending decrease by $860 between 2008 and 2022 when adjusted for inflation.
While per-student spending increased during that same period when excluding inflation, the state’s spending per student still fell far below the national average.
“Alabama hasn’t kept pace (with inflation) and districts have less buying power now than they had several years ago; Alabama currently ranks 39th in the country for per-pupil funding,” Schiess said.
“Now, rankings are rankings and somebody has got to be first and last, but Alabama is about $4,000 below the national average for student funding. In terms of student need, currently the state is providing minimal funding for students with disabilities, certainly much lower than any of its peer states.”
Regarding education funding for students with special needs, which includes those with disabilities or for whom English is a second language, Alabama’s current system assumes 5% of any given school system’s students have special needs. That system then receives 2.5-times the amount of funding for those students compared to students without special needs.
According to Alex Spurrier, an associate partner at Bellwether, an average of 18% of students at any given school district in Alabama has been identified for special education, far above the 5% assumed under the Foundation Program.
“About $183 per pupil (is what Alabama spends for students with special needs), a relatively low amount compared to other states,” Spurrier said. “So there’s certainly potential for Alabama to improve how funding is flowing to address these particular student needs across districts.”
Alabama’s current education funding model also has little correlation with child poverty levels, Schiess said, with Alabama having the sixth highest child poverty rate in the country. She said a student-based model, which carries more flexibility in allocating additional funding for students with higher needs, could better address that disparity.
At the meeting, Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee, laid down what he considered to be the committee’s “basic assumptions” as they continue to study the idea of potentially changing education funding models.
Among those assumptions, Orr said, was that whatever state lawmakers ultimately decide to do regarding education funding, any proposal that includes shifting one school district’s local funding to another school district would be a non-starter.
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, who chairs the House Education Committee, reiterated the importance of not moving local school district funding, and asked State Superintendent Eric Mackey to explain a recent comment of his that appeared to be in opposition of this principle.
“Perhaps you were misquoted, but what I read this morning was real disturbing,” Garrett said. “(You said) the extra funding the state would need to support a student-based model could come from a statewide tax increase of at least $2 billion, shifting money from school districts with high levels of local funds to systems with fewer resources, or maintaining double digits of economic growth on an annual basis.”
Garrett, visibly frustrated, asked Mackey to expand on his comments, which according to Lagniappe, were made in Baldwin County on Monday to members of the press.
“Sen. Orr just explained to you what the marching orders are for this commission as we look to study this issue,” Garrett continued.
“I’d like to give you the opportunity, if that’s an accurate quote, to explain what maybe you’re saying. Perhaps we need to disband the effort if that’s the conclusion. The other thing I want to make sure of, is the way that you sabotage, destroy and disrupt efforts down here is with misinformation.”
Mackey said that he was not suggesting that increasing taxes or shifting local funds from one district to another was the only way the state could adopt a student-based model, but rather, his comments were referencing a previous study conducted ten years ago on the subject that outlined increased taxes and shifting local dollars as one way to adopt such a model.
Orr would go on to stress that any alternative education funding model that includes shifting local dollars would be a non-starter.
“The state money is what would be used, the local money that local school districts get from local sales taxes or whatever, that money is substantial, it’s a couple billion dollars statewide; that money would remain with the locals to determine how they spend it,” Orr told Alabama Daily News after the meeting.
“This is a long-term process, this will not happen in just one year. I would think if we did this, we would not rip the Band-Aide off like Tennessee and Mississippi did, but it would be more of a process and a long-term journey than a more instant-type situation.”
Alabama is one of just five states not to have adopted a student-based education funding model, in part the impetus for the creation of the committee earlier this year to study the matter.
Orr told ADN, when asked how lawmakers would fund additional expenses from adopting such a model, that it was too early to say, and that it was still unclear if lawmakers would file legislation next session regarding changing the state’s education funding model.