The school year is half-over; budget preparations for next year are well underway; and the legislature is in session. I have personally visited with 75% of the legislators in the past two weeks, and NEA-Alaska has reached out to all of them. This session has a different atmosphere. Education is clearly front and center on the legislature’s agenda.

This means we must do our business differently. We must make our needs known NOW.

We cannot wait for the usual cycle of February budget introductions in individual school districts, March for preliminary budget needs and April for our full court press for school funding. We must present our needs in mid-February and be ready for an all-out legislative push in early March. Most importantly we must do it TOGETHER with school districts and administrators.

In determining our goal of short term and long term adequate K-12 funding, NEA-Alaska has considered three factors: 1) TRS/PERS, 2) inflation, and 3) instructional program needs. Our figure is an increase of $739 to the base student allocation (BSA), which would result in a BSA of $5,315.

The Juneau School District used a similar approach and suggested that a $912 increase to the BSA is needed ($4,576 to $5,488). The Kenai schools also considered similar components to arrive at a $5,048 BSA. I urge members to work with school districts to do the same and share the figure publicly no later than February 10th, prior to the first education fly-in. We should all sing from the same page.

I urge all members and association leaders to reach out to parent leaders and school district leaders to form a local lobbying group with a common message from the community that is echoed in the legislative halls in Juneau. Together we can get the governor and legislature to do even better than last year’s $82 million. Remember, last year’s $82 million came when no surplus was expected. This year with a conservatively estimated surplus of $300 million, should we expect less of an increase, the same increase or more of an increase?

Thank you for your advocacy for adequate -funding.