Districts learned about $115 million after school had already started

Alaska school districts learned they were getting $115 million the day after the school year began.

Anchorage's share is roughly $32 million, Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt told his board Tuesday. Legislators and state officials notified districts "very promptly" on Monday that "the full waterfall funding that we've been discussing for the past several weeks is available to school districts," he said.

The wait was built into the law. The Legislature did not appropriate the money outright. It made the money conditional on state revenue, to be measured after the fiscal year closed. If unrestricted general fund revenue for the year ending June 30 came in above $6.3 billion, the surplus would flow into a set order of claims. The revenue commissioner made that determination on Aug. 31.

Bryantt had asked for earlier word. The district wrote the commissioner in July, he told the board at the time, because "school districts need time to hire teachers, plan programs, and prepare." The state did not provide a projection ahead of the deadline, which fell after classrooms opened.

Board member Rachel Blakeslee said in August that the board had wondered whether the law was all or nothing. What they learned, she said, was that it was "a middle ground."

The order of claims explains why. First in line is an estimated $127.3 million for a one-time $200 energy relief payment, paid through the Permanent Fund Dividend. Second is the $115 million for schools. Third is $15 million for the bulk fuel revolving loan fund, which serves communities that buy a year of fuel at once. Whatever remains goes to the budget reserve.

Clearing the school money in full required at least $242 million above the threshold, after every other claim on the year. The bulk fuel fund needed $257 million, and whether it was reached is not on the record. The Department of Revenue has not published the determination itself.

The state's spring forecast, released in March, projected revenue at $6.5 billion, about $200 million over the trigger, while warning that conflict in Iran and oil market disruption made the estimate unusually uncertain. Of that $6.5 billion, $3.8 billion is the Permanent Fund transfer, leaving $2.7 billion from oil, gas and other sources.

Districts will not split the money evenly per student. It follows the state's existing funding formula, which weights for school size, district costs, special needs, vocational instruction, intensive services and correspondence study. That tilts toward small schools, expensive districts and students who need the most. The education department has not published the district-by-district split.

Against the roughly $1.27 billion the same budget sends to schools for the coming year, $115 million is about a nine percent addition.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy line-item vetoed parts of that budget in June, including education items. He did not touch this section.