The Alabama Senate on Thursday passed a substitute Education Trust Fund budget bill, which will now have to be taken up by the House for consideration.
The $8.2 billion budget is the largest in the state’s history, and includes large pay raises for teachers with 20 years or more of employment, and raises for all education staff.
House Bill 135, carried in the Senate on Thursday by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would also increase funding to Alabama’s four-year colleges by $118.2 million, to $1.448 billion.
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, tabled a committee substitute that had been adopted Wednesday and introduced a floor substitute bill.
Among the changes in the substitute bill are an $8.6 million increase to the community college system, $150,000 more for archives and a $500,000 increase for examiners. Other changes are a 25 percent increase for prison education and $22 million more for Pre-K classes. The bill includes a 4 percent pay raise for teachers who have less than nine years of employment.
Because the Senate approved an amended bill, the House will now have to decide whether to concur and send that bill to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature.
“I have tentative assurances from the House that they are inclined to concur,” Orr said after the vote.
