Corinn O’Brien, A+ Vice President of Policy, speaks at the Education Opportunity Summit on Nov. 22 in Birmingham, Alabama. O’Brien advocated for a change to the state’s almost three-decade old funding formula. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector)
BIRMINGHAM —A prominent Alabama education group Friday called for changes to the state’s method of funding schools, a topic that legislators have been discussing for several months.
Speaking at the Alabama Opportunity Summit in Birmingham, a gathering of educational stakeholders in the state including educators, advocates and policymakers, Corinn O’Brien, vice president of policy at A+ Education Partnerships, said alterations to the formula could free up more money for schools.
“This is the thing that is the once in a generation legislative victory that we believe will truly transform our schools and provide the opportunities that Alabama students need and deserve,” she said.
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A+ Education Partnership, an education advocacy organization, was among the hosts for the Alabama Opportunity Summit on Friday. The group has also been working with legislative budget chairs on potentially changing the state funding formula.
Alabama has traditionally underfunded public education, due to strict property tax caps dating from the end of Reconstruction that limit local spending on schools, as well as limits on assessments of property. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Alabama spent $11,819 per pupil in 2022, below the national average of $15,633.
The proposed changes would not alter taxation. Instead, they would rework the state’s current method of distributing revenues, called the K-12 Foundation Program, which was adopted in 1995.
Under the foundation program, money is allocated based on units and how much resources like teachers cost.
Lawmakers have been meeting in a joint legislative commission throughout the year to study the current funding formula. Lawmakers have set four guidelines: that funding aligns with student needs; that all districts see increased per-pupil funding; that school systems receive more flexibility in allocating the funding they receive through the state’s funding formula and that systems will retain control over local funding, without money shifting from one district to another.
Lawmakers and education officials have been considering a shift to a model known as a weighted student funding formula. In such a formula, schools would receive a base amount of money, with extra money allocated for students with special needs or those facing economic disadvantages.
O’Brien cited research from Bellwether, an education organization that worked on proposed changes to the formula, that said that money from the Education Trust Fund allocated for learning needs is only $133.2 million, compared to $5.3 billion allocated for all students, such as nurses and the foundation program.
She said that a poll of 500 people performed by A+ around a year ago showed that 66% of respondents supported “modernizing the way schools are funded in the state,” according to Mark Dixon, president of A+.
The discussions of the changes come on the heels of voters rejecting proposals to increase local property taxes for school districts in the state. Autauga County residents voted down a 7 mill property increase earlier this month, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. Trussville voters earlier this year rejected a 12.9 mill increase, according to WTVM 13.
In response to a question from an audience member, O’Brien said that the failed tax referendums from around the state didn’t necessarily indicate that a desire for modern school funding had changed, saying those votes were about tax increases.
“We believe this is possible without additional taxes,” she said.
O’Brien said later in the day that there were conversations around whether changing the formula would require a constitutional amendment. Nearly all of Alabama’s tax revenues are earmarked for specific purposes. A 1947 constitutional amendment requires all but a small fraction of the state’s income tax to pay teachers’ salaries.
“There are people looking to figure out exactly things that might need to be adjusted and changed as we speak,” she said.
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