Alabama legislative committee recommends hybrid K-12 funding model

House Ways and Means Education Committee Chair Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, asks a question as Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee Chair Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, listens during a budget presentation to lawmakers on Feb. 5, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

An Alabama legislative committee Thursday approved a report recommending the state adopt a hybrid model of funding the state’s public schools but leaving the door open to other approaches. 

Lawmakers previously outlined three options: maintaining the existing system, which allocates money based on daily attendance; overhauling it entirely, or adopting a hybrid with additional funding for specific student populations, such as special education and English language learners.

Members decided to go with the hybrid approach, which would maintain the current foundation program while introducing additional funding based on student needs. 

Alabama’s House education budget chair urges changes to school funding formula

“Option 3 is this hybrid that we’ve been discussing, and I’ve talked to members, that seems to be what they’re most interested in,” Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, co-chair of the Legislative Study Commission on Modernizing K-12 School Education, said during the meeting.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, suggested a one-time funding boost for failing schools to help them during the transition.

“If we’re going to be serious about trying to bring the education well above the way it needs to be, especially for the people that we’ve got to give some additional assistance to, then it’s going to be imperative that we provide a one-time boost for these failing schools to get them to a point to where what we are doing can begin to grab hope,” Smitherman said.

Rep. Troy Stubbs, R-Wetumpka, also expressed concerns about transportation funding for rural schools.

“If transportation is not part of the foundation program and not part of the hybrid approach, then I hope that we’ll consider possibilities of assisting those schools that are trying to transport students to and from long distances,” Stubbs said.

Moving forward, Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, co-chair of the committee, said that although he would like to implement the model within five years, lawmakers will move forward with caution.

“We’re not going to do anything rash, or, pardon my word, stupid. We’re going to be very deliberate about it and move at the pace as the revenues dictate because we do not want to cause problems out in the school systems across the state,” Orr said.