House Ways and Means Education advances $9.9 billion education budget, funds career-tech centers and RAISE Act transfers

The Alabama House Ways and Means Education committee on Tuesday gave favorable reports to a package of education spending bills, advancing a $9.9 billion Education Trust Fund budget, a $524 million supplemental appropriation and related measures that shift and add funding for school choice, student-weighted funding and regional career-technical centers.

Committee members said the 2026 education budget reflects a constrained growth cap while absorbing new costs for state employee and teacher workers’ compensation, parental leave and other mandated increases. The package includes a $100 million grant program for regional career-technical centers in the A and T fund, a $58 million transfer into the RAISE fund from existing student-needs allocations and a $375 million draw from the education reserve fund to seed the RAISE fund for three years.

Why it matters: The package reconfigures where recurring education dollars are held and directs large, one-time and multi-year reserve transfers to new programs. That includes the RAISE Act (Renewing Alabama Investment in Student Excellence Act), which moves student-weighted funding into a separate fund, and the Choose Act (education savings accounts), where the committee set aside contingency money to meet unexpectedly high demand in the program’s first year.

Key outcomes and funding moves - Education Trust Fund (ETF): The committee advanced the main appropriations bill reflecting a $560 million, roughly 6 percent, increase in the education budget to about $9.9 billion compared with last year. - Supplemental appropriation: The committee approved a supplemental package totaling approximately $524 million in cash for varied education priorities and earmarks, with line-item adjustments for schools, arts…