Alabama House passes $10.9 billion education budget

The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday passed the fiscal year 2027 Education Trust Fund budget, a $10.9 billion spending plan that directs most education funding to K-12 schools and higher education.

The total includes a $419.7 million supplemental appropriation. Lawmakers also approved $1 billion from the Advancement and Technology Fund for K-12 schools, community colleges and universities.

The budget provides $7.59 billion, or 72.46 percent, for K-12 education and $2.89 billion, or 27.54 percent, for higher education.

Among the largest line items, the budget includes $100 million for a 2 percent pay raise for teachers, $180 million for the Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Plan, $150 million for regional career technical education centers and $226 million for the First Class Pre-K Program. That pre-K funding level would provide coverage for 47 percent of Alabama’s 4-year-olds.

The spending plan also includes $114 million for the Alabama Numeracy Act, $151.9 million for the Alabama Literacy Act, $81 million for the Renewing Alabama’s Investment in Student Excellence, or RAISE, Act and $65 million for the College and Higher Education Excellence and Results, or CHEER, Act, a new outcome-based funding model for colleges and universities.

Lawmakers level-funded the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education, or CHOOSE, Act at $100 million. That amount will be combined with $150 million redirected from this year’s revenues before they entered the Education Trust Fund, bringing total CHOOSE funding to $250 million.

Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said the budget continues the state’s recent investment in public education and workforce development.

“With the nation’s largest gains in fourth-grade math and reading, Alabama is leading what many are calling the ‘Southern Surge’ in education,” Ledbetter said. “This historic progress is no accident. It starts with the Legislature’s commitment to providing students, teachers and school systems the resources they need to succeed.”

Representative Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, who chairs the House Ways and Means Education Committee, said lawmakers aimed to maintain education funding growth while emphasizing accountability.

“Whether it be delivering record levels of support to public schools or investing in Alabama’s nation-leading school choice program, the Legislature’s approach to funding education is beginning to pay significant dividends for our students, teachers and the future of our state,” Garrett said.