Alabama House education budget chair expects minor changes to Ivey’s ETF proposal

Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, the chair of the House Ways and Means Education Committee, stands on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives during a session on Feb. 8, 2024 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

House lawmakers Thursday held a meeting on what could be the 2025 Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget. But they mainly stuck to a discussion of what could change from Gov. Kay Ivey’s original $9.3 billion proposal.

Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, the chair of the House Ways and Means Education Committee, said he did not expect many alterations to Ivey’s proposal, which he expects to come to a vote next week.

The chair did not distribute copies of a proposed substitute Thursday, but read out changes. Garrett said after the meeting Thursday that legislative staff was working on both the ETF and the General Fund at the same time, and that he had not had a chance to proofread the ETF proposal.

“So there’s no issue, it’s just that normally when we do everything,” he said. “We have more days ahead of us.”

The budget would preserve a proposed 2% pay raise for education employees. One change would be removing $25 million for the rural broadband program. Garrett said that no longer needed to be funded from the ETF.

“At this point we have hundreds of millions of dollars we’re investing in broadband all over the state,” he said.

Garrett also said there would be more funding in the ETF and a supplemental budget to provide assistant principals for schools of 300 or more.

About $5 million was added to the supplemental budget for struggling readers beyond third grade. It also includes $500,000 for Birmingham Talks, an early literacy program based in Birmingham. The Alabama Literacy Act aims to have readers on grade level by the end of third grade, but currently there are no services offered beyond that.

“We don’t have a ‘struggling readers beyond third grade’,” Garrett said.

The governor allocated $30 million to the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences in Demopolis in a proposed supplemental bill. Garrett’s version of the budget brings it down to $20 million.

Garrett’s supplemental budget also includes $20 million for capital outlay related to the new statehouse, estimated to cost $325 million.

$50 million will be allocated to the CHOOSE Act, a voucher-like program, for students to spend on non-zoned public schools. The supplemental also includes grants for charter schools and $5 million for innovation in “school choice” or public schools.

“Example, this would be the school system that wanted to do the year round school,” he said.

Garrett’s version of the budget also removes $750,000 from the Alabama Public Library Service and reallocates it to two programs: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and Better Basics, a Birmingham-based nonprofit for reading and math.

The governor’s recommended budget has over $15 million allocated to APLS.

Right-wing activists have targeted APLS and state libraries over LGBTQ+ related content. Garrett said the cut was not punitive but aimed at improving literacy.

“We’re going to focus on trying to help kids need to read,” said Garrett.

The committee will also consider supplemental bills. HB 150, sponsored by Garrett, will allocate $408,793 to Southern Preparatory Academy. HB 149, sponsored by Garrett, will allocate $1,176,157 to Talladega College. HB 148 will allocate $14,816,579 to Tuskegee University. HB 146, sponsored by Garrett, will provide a 2% pay raise to education employees.

Garrett said that the supplemental appropriations would be the same overall amount but was restructured. Garrett said they freed up around $135 million in the supplemental because they allocated an extra $300 million in the Education Trust Fund Advancement and Technology Fund for similar purposes.

Garrett said he expects a vote on Tuesday in committee and a  vote in the Alabama House sometime next week. He said lawmakers did not want to wait until next week to get started on the budgets.

“That would push it later,” he said. “So, it’s unusual we have a weekend but that’s just the way it is.”

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