The Alabama Senate budget committee approved a record plan for education today, as for the first time, lawmakers approved a budget where spending topped $7 billion.

Gov. Kay Ivey had already recommended record levels of spending for fiscal year 2020, but Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, and his fellow committee members sweetened it further by adding $55 million, initially slated to be put aside for a rainy day.

Orr, the Senate budget chairman, said, "We now have K-12, with the current year budget and the next year's budget at 108 percent of 2008 [levels]."

The 2008 budget, coming before the hits from the recession, stood as a high-water mark the state has been aiming at for K-12 for much of the last decade. The $7.1 billion education budget the committee passed is a 7 percent increase over the current year's $6.6 billion in spending.

Alabama's nationally-recognized pre-K program is a big winner, seeing a nearly 30 percent increase in total funding, from $96 million in the current year to $123 million. "Gov. Ivey is committed to that [program]," Orr said, "and we respect that and agree with her."

The budget also includes a 4 percent pay raise for K-12 teachers, raising the starting teacher salary to above $40,000 for the first time.

Orr said higher education funding has still not reached pre-recession levels. "That's something that I think we need to move forward on," he said, "and push upward on."

Democratic lawmakers questioned the fairness of a new funding mechanism for Alabama's four-year public colleges and Athens State University.

All higher education institutions received at least a 5 percent increase, but some colleges and universities will receive a higher percentage increase than others under the new formula.

That formula considers costs in comparison with similar higher education institutions across the country.

In years past, allocations were based on an across-the-board percentage added to the previous year’s funding, which Orr said was not a good way to allocate funding.

Community colleges statewide saw a 10 percent increase in funding, from $382 million to $421 million. Funding for a dual enrollment scholarship program for high school students was increased by $1.6 million due to its popularity, Orr said, and funding for prison education rose by $3 million.

The Foundation Program, which provides the vast majority of money for state K-12 classrooms, will increase by 5 percent, or $200 million, over the current year’s budget, rising from $3.7 billion to $3.9 billion, with the bulk of that being spent on the 4 percent raise for teachers.

Additional money allocated for each state-funded teacher and put directly into classrooms for supplies ($600) and professional development ($100) went above 2008 levels, and funding for libraries ($200), textbooks ($75) and technology ($350) reached 2008 levels.

Orr said costs related to school transportation would be "fully funded for the first time since 2008," calling attention to the additional $34 million in funding which included a one-time sum of $6 million to replace old school buses.

Also in the budget is an increase for the Alabama Reading Initiative, rising from $45 million this year to $55.3 million in 2020, with $7.5 million of that increase earmarked for the Alabama Literacy Act, which focuses on improving reading proficiency at the K-3rd grade level.

That bill, approved by a House committee last week, still must make its way to the House floor and gain approval from the Senate.

There are increases for programs with proven success, including Alabama's Advanced Placement initiative and the Jobs for Alabama's Graduates (JAGS) program, and funding for new programs like Gov. Ivey's "CS4AL" computer science initiative and a program geared toward improving principals.

A $1.75 million bullying prevention grant program was added in the budget, but requires school districts to apply for grants to be awarded by the state department of education.

A $35 million expenditure on a children's Medicaid program that was moved out of the General Fund into the ETF was removed from the budget approved by lawmakers today.

A $4 million increase in funding for the Alabama Supercomputer Authority will allow all public schools and public libraries that want broadband services and offer wi-fi to do so, Orr said. Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, said he would like to see a plan in place to ensure that students and community members have access to that wi-fi.

“It’s good to have this stuff,” Smitherman said, but it won’t help if no one can use it.

A $700,000 increase for the Alabama Charter School Commission, which includes $500,000 for a newly-created group to help charter school operators navigate the approval process, drew criticism from Democrats on the committee. Smitherman asked why taxpayers should pay for the commission to “tear down public schools.”

Orr said the amount of funding was small compared to the overall budget and moved on.

After the meeting, Orr addressed criticism that Alabama lawmakers are diverting funds for traditional public schools, saying charter schools may be needed in areas where the public school systems are struggling. "What I have to remember in education," he said, "is that every year counts. We can't wait five years for the public system to get better."

Orr told reporters the 4 percent raise his committee approved last week was a good start, but teacher pay in Alabama has a way to go to make up for the impact of inflation. "This year, fortunately, we had adequate resources to [give the raise]," he said. "And I would hope next year, if the economy keeps going, we're able to do it again in a substantial way."

When asked what his committee might do with the new teacher's retirement benefits passed by the House last week, Orr said they need to consider the costs, which he said run into the billions of dollars over the course of the next 30 years.

"We really want to see the dollars and the financial impact it has on our state," he said, adding that teacher pensions are looming in the 69 percent to 70 percent-funded range, which is far below experts' recommendations to be in the 85 percent to 90 percent-funded range. "This would be a large additional cost if we were to do the Tier 3 program."

The budget gained approval in the committee by a 13-1 vote. Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, was the only lawmaker to vote ‘no,’ which he said he did due to concerns about higher education funding under the new formula.

The full Senate is expected to take up the education budget package, which includes the $7.1 billion education budget, the teacher pay raise and a separate $270 million allocation from the Advancement and Technology Fund for the current year, on Thursday.