A bill that advanced in the Alaska Senate on Wednesday would provide a $1,000 per-student boost to the state’s school funding formula. It also would limit class sizes and tie funding for homeschooling to students being assessed through a standardized test or portfolio.

The Senate Education Committee introduced and quickly voted in favor of its own version of House Bill 69, which the lower chamber passed earlier this month. It added several policy changes.

Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage and the committee chair, said in an interview before introducing the committee version that she hoped the legislation “showcases that we want to find common ground, that we want to build a better Alaska together.”

Mike Mason, an aide for Tobin, began a presentation on the bill by saying that Alaska schools are in crisis.

“Funding has not kept up with inflation,” he said. “Simultaneously, there’s a nationwide shortage of teachers and other education professionals as a state. It looks like we are shortchanging the future academic and economic success of our children by not funding our schools to thrive.”

Mason described some of the key additions to the legislation, which originated as a measure to increase the core of the funding formula, known as the base student allocation.

“It retains the heart of House Bill 69 that is the $1,000 BSA increase,” Mason said. “The BSA supports all forms of public education, that includes charter schools, the home school component …. It will allow schools to have better programs. In many cases, it will even allow schools to have smaller class sizes.”

Class sizes are addressed in the committee version with the new maximum class sizes, to curb overcrowding. The bill allows districts to exclude elective classes and mixed-grade classes from these caps. The target average maximum class size for each grade from prekindergarten through sixth grade would be 23 students, and the targeted cap for grades 7 through 12 would be 30 students.

If districts cannot stay at or below the maximum class sizes, they would be required to report to the state why they’re unable to meet the limits and how they plan to meet them in the future. “And then districts that are unable to meet their grade level targets would be eligible for some grant funding,” Mason said.

The bill also expands open enrollment across districts statewide, allowing families to enroll students in the public school of their choice, with some exceptions and provisions for neighborhood schools. “For instance, school districts are allowed to make policies that include a preference for siblings and children of employees of the school. Districts can also give preference to military families, and the capacity of a school would be determined by the local school board,” Mason said.

The legislation also included provisions to boost career and technical training opportunities, and a new task force on education funding to help find ways to lower costs, such as insurance and school maintenance.

Another provision would attach homeschool allotment funding to students participating in standardized testing, including “state standards-based assessment, alternative assessment, or provide a student portfolio based on criteria established by DEED.”

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, introduced an amendment Wednesday to allow that provision to start next year, which was adopted unanimously.

“I want to make sure that people have time to adjust. And certainly no homeschooler should go without an allotment that is expecting it for next school year,” he said.

The amended bill was unanimously moved by the four committee members present on Wednesday, with Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok, excused. It is on track to go to the Senate Finance Committee next week.

The price tag for HB 69 is estimated at $253 million added to per student funding, plus $22 million for the state’s reading program, according to the legislative budget analysts, to total $275 million.

If there are additional costs for the committee’s bill, they will be presented to the finance committee, according to Mason.

Tobin said Wednesday morning that she is confident in legislators being able to fund major priorities, including education. She rejected pitting the Permanent Fund dividend amount against school funding.

“I think it is a false choice between having x and getting y,” she said. “I think once we put all the great minds in this building together, we can actually build a system that puts resources where they’re desperately needed into our state systems …. We can do it all.”

• Corinne Smith started reporting in Alaska in 2020, serving as a radio reporter for several local stations across the state including in Petersburg, Haines, Homer and Dillingham. She spent two summers covering the Bristol Bay fishing season. Originally from Oakland, California, she got her start as a reporter, then morning show producer, at KPFA Radio in Berkeley. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.