Alabama Senate approves $9.3 billion education budget with employee pay raises

The Alabama Senate Thursday approved a $9.3 billion education budget for 2025 that includes pay raises for school employees and increases funding for most education programs.

The budget is $549.9 million (6.8%) higher than the 2024 Education Trust Fund. The Senate also approved a supplemental bill allocating $651 million to education programs and schools in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.

The bills all passed unanimously and with very little debate. The Senate made relatively minor changes to the House version of the budget, which passed that chamber last month.

The increases include:

• •  A 2% pay raise for education employees, effective Oct. 1.
  • A $189.2 million increase (3.6%) to local boards of education, from $5.125 billion to $5.314 billion. The increases include a $23.9 million (36%) increase for school nurses, from $65.5 million to $89.5 million.
  • A $172.4 million increase (32.2%) for the Alabama State Department of Education, from $534.7 million to $707.1 million, most of which reflects increased funding for individual programs.
  • A $112.5 million increase (7.2%) for the state’s public colleges and universities, from $1.553 billion to $1.666 billion.
  • A $35.6 million increase (6.4%) 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 Intitative, 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.

There was relatively little discussion of the budget itself, but Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee, spoke several times about potential changes to the state’s funding model, moving from allocating money based on daily head count to allocating money based on need.

“We’ve got to look at our students and their particular needs, and that’s what we ought to do and that’s what we’re going to do … and quite frankly, where’s our destination? Where are we going to go? And how are we going to get there?”

A coalition of education and civil rights groups have launched a coalition advocating for changes to the state’s funding model.

Other senators brought up individual concerns. Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, praised the budget for funding Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), particularly when it came to security.

“What you’re seeing is not just fencing security, but cybersecurity,” he said. “We need a lot of security around different campuses.”

Orr said there was funding in the budget for security cameras, lighting and fences at different colleges.

The budget returns to the House of Representatives for concurrence with Senate changes or a conference committee. If approved and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey, the budget will go into effect on Oct. 1.

The supplemental bill includes an additional $109 million for local school boards; $63 million for the Alabama State Department of Education, including $15 million for summer reading camps and $50 million to provide funding for the CHOOSE Act, a school voucher-like program which creates a tax-credit program to allow parents to claim up to $7,000 per school-age child to use for private school tuition, private tutoring or educational software and applications.

Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, said she was disappointed at seeing money going to private schools, noting that education retirees had not received additional money in the budget.

“That’s what makes it so difficult for me to see how we can get hundreds of millions of dollars to people who can already to pay for private school for their children,” she said. “I truly believe that every child has a right to a high level of quality and excellence in education.”