Alabama Legislature passes $9.3 billion education budget in final hours of 2024 session

After being held in limbo for most of the week, the Alabama Legislature gave final approval Thursday to the 2025 Education Trust Fund budget and a large supplemental appropriation for the current fiscal year.

The budget package came out of a joint committee meeting earlier in the week, but final approval stalled amid tensions between the chamber over the pace of bill approvals. 

The $9.3 billion education budget, the largest in nominal terms in state history, includes a 2% raise for teachers. It also includes increases for local boards of education and many education initiatives, including the Alabama Reading Initiative and Alabama, Math, Science and Technology Initiative.

In HB 145, the main budget bill, the conference committee report changed the $1.5 million for School Safety Evaluations, Mapping, and Grants from the Alabama State Department of Education to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee Chair Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, suspended the rules on Thursday to make a language change in the legislation. 

“No money change,” he said.

The ETF also includes:

• A $185.4 million increase to local boards of education, from $5.125 billion to $5.3104 billion. The increases include a $24 million increase for school nurses, from $65.5 million to $89.5 million.
• A $173.1 million increase for the Alabama State Department of Education, from $534.7 million to $707.8 million, most of which reflects increased funding for individual programs.
• A $35.6 million increase for the Alabama Community College system, from $551.3 million to $586.9 million.

The Department of Education’s increases include a $48.6 million increase (51.5%) increase for the Alabama Reading Initiative, from $94.2 million to $142.8 million and a $30.6 million increase (41.8%) for the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, from $73.2 million to $103.9 million.

The budget goes into effect on Oct. 1.

HB 144 makes a supplemental appropriation of $651.2 million to the current education budget. The appropriations include $50 million for the CHOOSE Act, a voucher-like program allowing families to claim up to $7,000 in tax credits per qualifying child to use on non-public education services, including private school tuition. The legislation also allocates money to K-12 schools and colleges and universities, mostly for construction projects and one-time expenses.

The conference committee report added $750,000 for the Principal Leadership and Mentoring Act and $2 million more for the Community College System Capital Fund, among other changes. The committee report also removed funding from the Education Retirees’ Fund.

HB 147 allocates a total of $1 billion from the Education Trust Fund Advancement and Technology Fund to K-12 schools and colleges and universities for one-time upgrades to buildings or technology. The committee report restored $2 million for teacher development training.

Tensions between chambers

The budget emerged after a day of tension between the House and the Senate. The House only brought up the reports after a lengthy recess, and the Senate only concurred after their own second recess of the day after the House sent them to the upper chamber.

 While the Senate concurred with reports after little discussion, House members vented frustration about the failure of a gambling package in a lengthy discussion of the supplemental funding bill. 

Many said the gambling package, which House supporters claimed would bring up to $1.2 billion into state coffers, would have allowed them to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for benefits paid to education retirees, who have not had a COLA since 2007. 

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, asked House Ways and Means Education Committee Chair Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, the sponsor of the budget package, about the funding for retired education employees and asked Garrett to help him understand why that funding was removed.

“These people have put their heart into their work,” he said. “They put their health and their lives on the line for all these years and we’re not showing an appreciation. I’m just sick and tired of us flirting every year by telling them that we’re going to do something for them next year.”

Garrett said a 1% COLA would cost $200 million. He defended a decision to move $5 million out of a fund for retirees, which caused tension with the Senate, saying that that among wasn’t close to meeting retirees’ needs. 

“I’m sympathetic,” he said. “I’m trying to be practical to tell you that the solution that was put in the supplemental did not address or anywhere come near addressing the problem. What we’re doing is we took that money and allocated where we use it today,” Garrett said.

Rep. Chris Blackshear, R-Smiths Station, who sponsored the gambling bill, said the revenue could have met those costs and said the Senate, which rejected a compromise package last week, did not trust Alabamians to make an informed decision. 

“In the day when the people in these bodies have voted no on a gaming legislation that was a new piece of funding, that was hurting retirees potentially as well, too, because that completely eliminated that new revenue stream source. Would that be safe to say?” Blackshear asked Garrett.

“The gaming legislation did provide for a potential revenue stream to fund retiree trust funds,” Garrett responded.

Blackshear continued and said that it’s been 25 years that the state has kept retirees from voting on the new revenue stream, referring to a 1999 vote where voters rejected a lottery to fund education programs.

“Every time we tell them no allowing them to vote, we’re telling them ‘no’ to giving them additional revenue (and) funds in their pocket. Because we had a source of revenue. This body passed it twice, a new source of revenue,” he said.

Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said the House needs to bring the gambling bill back next year and “ram it down [the Senate] throats and let the people know, in the state of Alabama that the House of Representatives tried to fix a problem that has not been fixed in all of these years.”

Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, also said that finding funding is possible when there is desire to do so. She said they were able to find $10 million to fund  the EBT summer meal program, which feeds hungry children while school is out, for 2025.

On the main budget later in the day, representatives also brought up the link between gambling and the education budget.

“I’m saying to us in this body, we’ve got to start getting serious about the things that we want to move us forward,” she said. “We’ve got a Speaker who took on this initiative, and I don’t know about any of you all, I think he took it on for the right reason. That’s why I’m frustrated. Because I failed his heart, just as I felt mine. We have got to start looking out for tomorrow for Alabama. Whatever your reasons are, we’re not where we should be, and we’ve got to learn that we’ve all got to work together to go where we need to be.”

“I wish we would hold up just a little while longer on this ETF,” said Givan. “You know, I think it’s a foregone conclusion that I don’t really have much for the folks upstairs in the big house. Especially this session. Hopefully it’ll change by the time we come back. If not, I’m okay too.”

At the conclusion of the session, Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed, R-Jasper, highlighted the budgets to reporters.

“Alabama’s economy is strong and we’re thankful our conservative approach to budgeting has yielded great outcomes as a result we were in a position where we had strong budgets,” he said. “We had the largest general fund and the largest education budgets in the history of the state of Alabama.” 

Earlier Thursday, the House of Representatives had also concurred with changes made by the Senate to a First Grade Readiness bill, which will require kindergarten or an assessment showing first grade readiness.

The budgets and first grade readiness go to Gov. Kay Ivey. In a statement Thursday, Ivey called the ETF “an investment in the future of Alabama.”

“From fully funding critical programs like the Literacy and Numeracy Acts to supporting the Turnaround Schools program to increasing our investment in special education to prioritizing workforce development needs like career coaches and dual enrollment, this budget wisely invests in the spectrum of education,” the statement said.

Alander Rocha contributed to this report.