House education budget includes 2.5 percent raise for teachers

A funding increase does a lot to foster agreement.

The House Ways and Means Education Committee on Tuesday unveiled a $6.7 billion Education Trust Fund budget that would provide a 2.5 percent pay raise for education employees, an additional $20 million for the state’s pre-kindergarten program and various increases to operational and educational programs in the 2019 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

“This is a great budget for the state of Alabama,” committee chair Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, said after a public hearing on the proposal. “It is a positive budget. It reflects some economic growth the state is having relative to increased revenues, and I think it really is able to touch in a positive way every component of education in the state.”

The committee should vote on the budget Wednesday morning. If it passes, Poole said it could be on the House floor next week.

The strong economy has helped the Education Trust Fund, which gets most of its income from income and sales taxes. The Legislative Fiscal Office projects the budget will grow about 3.4 percent next year, giving legislators an extra $219 million for services.

The biggest part of that — $102.4 million — will go to raises for education employees. K-12 and community college employees will both see increases under the proposal.

Teachers get paid on a scale based on classroom experience and educational attainment. Under the proposal, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree and less than three years’ experience would see their pay increase from $38,942 a year to about $39,901, an increase of $959 for the year.

A teacher with a master’s degree and 15 to 18 years of experience would see their pay increase from $53,426 to $54,762, a $1,336 increase.

A percentage increase in education employees’ pay costs approximately $40 million. Education employees last received a cost-of-living increase in 2016.

The budget will also provide a $20 million increase for the state’s pre-kindergarten program, slightly less than the $23 million increase sought by advocates and Gov. Kay Ivey. Bob Powers, co-chair of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance Pre-K Task Force, asked legislators to go to the full amount, saying slots for Pre-K classrooms were not keeping up with demand.

“A $23 million increase for first-class Pre-K would bring the total investment to $105 million in 2019,” he said. “It would put us back on track to meet the Pre-K vision of full funding by 2023.”

The budget would also provide an additional $4.2 million for new technology; $3.9 million for transportation; $2.6 million for fleet maintenance and $1.9 for technology coordinators. The legislation also increases funding for the Alabama Reading Initiative by $5 million while redirecting its focus to kindergarten to third grade.

The proposal would also provide an additional $5.4 million for student materials. Interim state schools superintendent Ed Richardson said that would take the funding for the line-item to the highest level it has been at in a decade.

“Looking at everything we asked for, we believe the budget will set the stage for the next school year to be positive,” he said.

There were almost no criticisms of the budget, though some speakers at the public hearing felt there should be more in the budget for education retirees, who have not seen a cost-of-living adjustment for about a decade. Jill Jackson, executive director of the Alabama Education Retirees Association, said retirees had seen their pay eroded by inflation and growing health care expenses, and sought a one-time bonus.

“We ask you to be in favor of us giving us a 13th check consisting of $400 dollars,” she said.

Susan Kennedy, public policy and governmental relations manager for the Alabama Education Association, also pushed for a larger raise for teachers, saying efforts to raise salaries in Tennessee and South Carolina meant that Alabama could end up behind every southeastern state except Mississippi and Arkansas in average teacher pay.

Kennedy suggested changing the state’s Rolling Reserve law — which limits the amount of new spending the state can make in the education budget each year — to pull out $65 million she said could increase the pay raise to 3.5 percent and provide a bonus for retirees and the money Pre-K advocates seek.

“We have too many needs to continue to sock away valuable dollars in savings accounts when we have $660 million socked away in savings accounts to avoid proration,” she said.

The budget will also provide for the hiring of approximately 197 fourth-to-sixth grade teachers, a relatively small amount in a state system with more than 30,000 teachers, but Richardson said “whatever we can do will help.”

“Could we use more? Sure,” he said. “But when you look at the available funds, that’s the best we can do.”