Alabama Legislature passes Education Budget with major boost to classroom spending

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Legislature on Tuesday gave final passage to a $5.9 billion Education Budget, boosting classroom spending with $49.6 million in additional funds.

The Education Budget sailed through the Legislature with widespread support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as educators. It will now go to the Governor for his signature.

The budget boosted funding for textbooks by $13 million and appropriated an additional $3 million for classroom supplies in an effort to keep teachers from feeling compelled to spend money out of their own pockets. Distance learning, library upgrades and technology funding also received boosts.

The state’s lauded public Pre-K program received a $10 million bump in funding. The program, for which Gov. Bentley has been a vocal advocate, currently serves 13 percent of Alabama’s 4-year-olds. That percentage will increase next year as approximately 3,600 additional students will be brought into the program.

The non-controversial passage of the Education Budget stands in stark contrast to the chaos surrounding the state’s General Fund budget, which is facing an approximately $250 million shortfall. Alabama is one of only three states in the country that separates its revenue into two separate pots. Because most of the taxes that grow as the economy improves flow into the Education Budget, school spending has grown while the cash-strapped General Fund has struggled to fulfill its obligations.

That has led many conservatives to push for the budgets to be combined.

“We have surplus dollars for one priority, education, but not enough money for other vital governmental functions like caring for the mentally ill,” said Sen. Paul Sanford (R-Huntsville). “We don’t need more revenue to fund state government – we need to fix the process by which we allocate the taxpayer money we already have.”

Gov. Bentley has also supported the idea of combining the budgets in the past, although his recent efforts have focused more on raising taxes to patch the General Fund hole.

“When you have two checkbooks, and you don’t have enough money in one and you do in the other one, what are you going to do at home? Well, you’re either going to move some money or you’re going to combine them,” he said in 2012.

With just a handful of days left in the 2015 Regular Legislative Sessions, lawmakers are facing a time crunch to pass a balanced General Fund budget. But on Tuesday, the process worked smoothly as the Education Budget skated through without controversy.