Business officers and superintendents urge stable BSA, transportation funding and oppose bond‑reimbursement moratorium
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Summary
School business officials and superintendents told the education committees that despite a recent BSA increase districts still face an inflation‑adjusted shortfall, a growing deferred‑maintenance backlog and a $65 million transportation funding gap; they urged predictable funding and warned against a moratorium on bond debt reimbursement.
Katie Parrott, senior director of the Office of Management and Budget for Anchorage School District and president of the Alaska Association of School Business Officials (AASBO), and Randy Traini, president of the Alaska Superintendents Association, addressed school finance, transportation and facilities funding at the joint committee meeting.
Parrott said audited FY25 operating expenditures show roughly 75% of district operating dollars directed to instruction and only about 2% to district administration, challenging the narrative that districts are "top heavy." She said the statewide special education population has increased by about 14% since 2021 while overall enrollment has declined by about 1.5% over the last decade, and that districts have absorbed approximately $65 million in additional pupil‑transportation costs since 2016.
Traini underscored a longer-term funding gap: while lawmakers raised the Base Student Allocation (BSA) to 6,660 for FY25–FY26, adjusted for CPI the BSA would be closer to 7,943, leaving an inflation‑adjusted delta. He warned that unstable state funding forces districts into cuts and turns superintendents into "budget slasher in chief" rather than academic leaders; Traini cited a deferred maintenance backlog he put in the range of about one billion dollars.
Both presenters urged the legislature to provide predictable, inflation‑proof funding for pupil transportation, to reject a moratorium on school bond debt reimbursement and to consider funding structures (including a buildings/facilities allocation) that reduce cost‑shifting to local governments. Lawmakers asked for district audit information, reporting of fund balances and more transparent capital and federal fund reporting; presenters said those reports exist but stressed staff capacity challenges in producing off‑cycle snapshots.
