Late yesterday evening, the legislature’s joint conference committee voted to eliminate the $50 Base Student Allocation for Alaska’s schools in Fiscal Year 2017.
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones says that lowers the amount that the borough can contribute for the upcoming fiscal year.
Jones: “What that means for the Kenai is that we lost about $886,000 worth of state funding, and it means that the Borough can’t fund us an additional $203,000 that was associated with that. So by the action that was taken in Juneau [Tuesday], we’re down about $1,090,000 in revenue.”
The decision was made in the House and Senate Operating Budget Conference Committee as lawmakers look for a compromise on the proposed budget for FY 2017.
Jones: “Bottom line is we lost $1,090,000 that we had in our budget, that’s a given. And we had budgeted the Borough at this amount, so if the borough funds us at where they funded us at FY 16, it’ll be that much more of a deficit that we have and we’ll have to decide what to do.”
The Kenai Peninsula Borough’s annual cap on education funding is tied to that Base Student Allocation formula that is set by the state.
The state’s operating budget has not yet been finalized however, Jones says there is a possibility that lawmakers could move to reinstate the BSA before the fiscal plan is passed.