After lengthy debate – and sparring between chambers – Alabama lawmakers finalized a $9.3 billion regular education budget and $1.7 billion in additional spending for K-12 and higher education.
That brings total spending on pre-K, K12 and higher education to $11 billion, below the record $11.6 billion allocated for the current budget year. The funding joins the state’s $3.4 billion general fund budget, which supports increases to prisons, mental health and Medicaid.
State education employees will get a 2% raise, and lawmakers added a $10 million allocation for summer EBT benefits for children for the summer of 2025.
“During my state of the state address, I also challenged the Legislature to increase our starting salaries for teachers so we could have the highest base salary for teachers among our neighboring states,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement Thursday night. “We accomplished that, and since I have been governor, we have seen a 24 percent base pay increase – that’s something to be proud of for sure.”
Tensions over a stalled lottery bill held up several bills in the last days of the legislative session, including a final vote on the revised budget.
“It’s time that we stop playing these games with special interests and look out for the people who sent us here, and to fight the battle for the children,” Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, said on the House floor Thursday.
“I’m so frustrated because I see the faces of children who are the future and we’re not preparing them in Alabama. We sit here every session and talk about how we don’t have people to go into the workforce because they’re not skilled. We sit here every day and bring children up in the gallery and we don’t hold them to be important. We’ve got to start looking at our tomorrow.”
After hours of discussion on the House floor Thursday, lawmakers voted to take out $5 million from the supplemental budget that was designated for a retirement fund for educators. A conference committee redistributed that money to community college capital projects, historical and arts grants, as well as a principal leadership program that will now include career tech directors.
House sponsor Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, said the supplemental fund was simply not big enough to allocate the amount that would have been needed to keep up with increased costs of living, so the committee opted to spend those funds elsewhere.
On the House floor Tuesday, Democrats and some Republicans expressed frustration over the cuts. Some said they had received calls from frustrated educators and retirees. Others took the opportunity to speak out on the lottery bill, which could have provided more funding for education.
”When it comes down to the bottom line, who needs it the most gets the least,” Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, said on the stand after several of his colleagues voiced their concerns. “That’s how we operate in this chamber.”
Rep. Brett Easterbrook, R-Fruitdale, suggested the House carry the budget over and let the governor call a special session so that a lottery can be reconsidered. Gov. Kay Ivey dismissed the idea when questioned by reporters Thursday.
A $14.9 million allocation for a not-yet-created workers’ compensation program for educators was added in the Senate committee version, contingent on if SB278, which creates the program, became law. Garrett said the committee took out the allocation in the Education Trust Fund because the bill was unlikely to pass.
Lawmakers also approved a $1.5 million committee for a school safety task force that was not originally included in the education budget.
HB147, which allocates $1 billion from the Advancement and Technology Fund based on a formula that considers enrollment also was settled in the conference committee. The committee put back in $2 million for a professional development program that the Senate took out.
Other Senate additions that survived include a $900,000 first-grade readiness pilot project and a $5 million allocation to place automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, in schools.
The budget now heads to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature.
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