RAISE Act, education package approved by House committee

An Alabama House of Representatives committee approved a bill Tuesday that would begin dispersing hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to improve public educational outcomes.

The Alabama House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Education Committee unanimously agreed to give Senate Bill 305, sponsored by state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, a favorable report.

SB305, or the Renewing Alabama’s Investment in Student Excellence Act, would establish a process to provide additional funding for public K-12 schools to address the educational needs of students and improve educational outcomes.

The bill would also require the State Department of Education to streamline the application and reporting processes for state and federal funding programs for educational institutions.

The committee also approved SB111, a bill to authorize the transfer of $375 million in funds from the state’s Education Opportunities Reserve Fund to support the RAISE fund.

Committee chair, state Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, said the funding taken from the Education Opportunities Reserve Fund would fund the RAISE Act for three years.

The RAISE Act was created out of a year-long state taskforce review looking into potential improvements for Alabama’s K-12 funding system.

The taskforce recommended keeping the state’s current Foundation Program, which funds basic educational needs such as the hiring of teachers, administrators and payments for operating expenses and supplies. However, they proposed adding a new funding mechanism in order to help schools better meet needs of students.

SB305 would grant additional funding increases to schools based on various student needs determined by a fixed percentage of the school’s average per-student Foundation Program allocation in the previous year.

Districts with students identified to be in poverty may generate yearly allocation increases of up to 20 percent.

Schools may receive an additional 25, 50 or 150 percent for students identified who require special education services, depending on the nature of disabilities present.

English language learner students may generate weighted allocations of up to 15 percent, with an additional 5 percent possible for school districts with high concentrations of English language learners.

Public charter school students may receive an additional allocation up to 10 percent per student, depending on how much local tax revenue the school collects.

Students shown to have potential for high academic achievement may allow schools up to an additional 5 percent to be used for gifted student enrichment programs.

RAISE funding amounts are to be reported in the state’s annual Education Report Card.

The act is part of a wider educational budget package fronted by Sen. Orr, including three appropriations bills, which were also given favorable reports by the committee.

This includes SB112, an appropriations bill sponsored by Orr which includes a $561 million budgetary increase for the Alabama Education Trust Fund, providing a total budget of $9.9 billion. The bill also grants an additional $166 million to the RAISE Act fund.

The committee also approved SB113, granting over $524 million from the state Education Trust Fund to the state Department of Education, local school boards, public universities and various other state funded educational institutions.

SB114 was also approved, providing $1.25 billion from the state’s Education Trust Fund Advancement and Technology Fund to public institutions of higher learning, as well as the Board of Youth Services School Districts, the Alabama Department of Education, and the boards of trustees for the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind and public vocational boarding schools across the state.

All bills approved during the meeting have passed the state Senate and will advance to the House for a vote.