Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska.
Abstract
The Alaska Legislature asked ISER to examine what has driven up costs of Alaska's school districts in the past two decades, and to assess how the state's School Foundation Program could better achieve both taxpayer and education equity. This summary describes what we studied, reports how much specific categories of school costs went up and why, and outlines our conclusions and suggestions about taxpayer and education equity and the foundation program. We examined changes in the major categories of school operating costs over the past two decades. We studied operations spending not only because it makes up most of school district spending, but also because it is recurring, with a similar pattern year after year. Capital projects, by contrast, differ each year, depending on what districts and the legislature decide is most urgent, and on how much money the state has to spend for capital projects.Alaska Legislature Budget and Audit Committe
