The Alabama State Board of Education outlined a list of budget priorities on Thursday, highlighting new costs for school safety and transportation.
The largest increase in requests is for school safety, where the department is seeking $50 million. That is up from $2.5 million approved last year, although lawmakers also provided an additional $12 million in supplemental funding. About $3.8 million of that went to a statewide school mapping program and $3.4 million to train officers in rural counties.
“We’ve given ALEA money to provide training for officers who may be the only person responding in a rural county,” said Mackey. “That kind of training is vital when you’ve got three deputies on duty and no state troopers in the county.”
Districts have also used safety dollars on fencing, cameras, ballistic film for windows and metal detectors.
“Unfortunately, we’re getting more and more requests about weapons and metal detectors,” Mackey told board members.
Testing is also becoming more expensive. Alabama launched a new virtual testing platform this year that allows online students to take state exams at home under strict monitoring. Developing the system cost about $6 million. The legislature approved $2 million in the assessment budget and will continue to for the next two years. Running the program will add new annual expenses.
“It’s much more expensive to administer a virtual test, too,” said Mackey. “That number will always—it’ll never go back down.”
Officials said the results will be closely monitored.
“If our students aren’t testing well under a virtual model, we need to know that,” Mackey said. “At the same time, if all of a sudden they’re way up here, then we’ve got to make sure our security protocols are right.”
Mental health services also remain underfunded, Mackey said. Each district currently receives $40,000 for a coordinator.
“That includes big districts like Jefferson County,” said Mackey. “They’re only getting $40,000. We really want to continue to build that out.”
Transportation continues to be one of the costliest problems. Mackey said fully replacing buses on the state’s ten-year cycle would take $136 million more than what is now budgeted, but the transportation line won’t be finalized until the department receives transportation route reports.
“The cost of buses is growing much faster than the regular rate of inflation,” he said. “It’s around $160,000 per bus, and it was in the $80,000 range when I started this position eight years ago.”
Another new pressure point is parental leave. Lawmakers set aside $9.6 million, but Mackey said that figure is already falling short.
“We’ve already told them they’re aware that that’s probably going to be underfunded,” said Mackey. “We think it’s going to take about another $2.5 million to fund it.”
Other programs under review include $30 million for after-school programs, $20 million for college and career readiness grants, expansion of Jobs for America’s Graduates into every county, stipends for speech pathologists and funding for career tech academies.
Enrollment figures, due later this fall, will determine the final numbers for the state’s Foundation Program. Last school year, Alabama schools added about 2,500 students. Officials said that growth may not continue under the new school choice law, which could draw more students into private schools or homeschooling.
The board is expected to receive further updates and vote on a final budget in October.
