MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama State Board of Education on Thursday discussed a proposed fiscal year 2026 $6.4 billion budget request – about a $472 million increase – with a large focus on school safety.
“We were very happy about our proposal for the budget,” said State Superintendent Eric Mackey ahead of the board’s work session.
The request is above what will likely be available in 2026, unless pulled from other allocations. The 2025 total education budget, including community colleges and four-year universities, is $9.3 billion.
“We are cognizant of the fact that there’s only about $380 million (additional money) that’s going to be available for K-12, that number’s set in law because there’s a cap,” Mackey said. “So we know how much money is available.”
The proposal, which features an additional ask of $51.4 million for school safety, comes amid financial struggles of the state’s health care plan for active and retired teachers, known as PEEHIP, which is projected to see a $283 million shortfall in 2027.
The projected budget shortfall for teacher health care led to the PEEHIP Board voting last week to ask lawmakers for an additional $134 million next year, bringing the total ask to $1.3 billion, or $904 per member, and to request for a transfer of up to $118.9 million from a reserve fund.
“I strongly support the Legislature coming along and going from $800 per active unit to $904, but that is a lot of money, it’s going to take about a quarter of all the available resources for (the) year, maybe a little more than that,” he said. “So as we go into the legislative session, we’re very cognitive of how difficult it’s going to be to build a budget this year.”
Separately, lawmakers will be asked in the 2026 budget to increase the state’s contribution to the teachers’ retirement system.
Discussed during the board’s work session meeting, the proposed budget included several increases from fiscal 2025 appropriations, including an additional $27 million for the Alabama Numeracy Act, $52 million for reading initiatives for students beyond third grade, $133 million for school transportation and $51.4 million for school safety.
The request also included $4.7 billion for the education Foundation program, which funds all of Alabama’s public schools, for an increase of about $55.5 million.
On school safety, both lawmakers and educators have been engaged in a renewed push to improve safety at Alabama schools.
Lawmakers resurrected the School Safety Advisory Commission last year, and educators have been asking for additional funding to maintain and improve school safety and security systems, which the “vast majority” of schools have fallen behind on maintaining, State Fire Marshal Scott Pilgreen said last year.
On the $55.5 million increase for the Foundation Program, Brandon Payne, assistant state superintendent, said that a “large share” of the increase was due to the placement of assistant principals in schools. More than 200 new assistant principals were funded in last year’s education budget.
While only 48% of all school buses were fitted with air conditioning as of last year, the $133 million increase for transportation, Payne said, was largely due to standard maintenance based on past years’ costs.
“We’re asking for a fully-funded transportation program, that’s what that number of $571 million recommends in that, and that’s based off (of) prior year costs, projections of fuel and things of that nature,” he said.
One new ask from educators was $900,000 for the First Grade Readiness Pilot Program, the result of a bill signed into law this year authored by Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, which will require students to pass a first grade readiness exam should their parents choose to have them skip kindergarten.
The budget request will come for a vote before the board in October, and Mackey stressed that its current form was “kind of the first strike at the budget,” and would likely change in the weeks and months ahead.