The borough’s role is to decide how much it can afford to contribute to the school district operating budget, and the school board and administration’s role is to decide how best to spend that money for as good an education as is affordable.

If money were unlimited, the decisions would be easy. But money is limited, particularly as the state has fallen behind in covering its share of education costs.

The situation was made even tighter when Congress in 2024 failed to reauthorize a quarter-century-old program which sent money to communities that had national forest land but no property tax revenue from that land to help pay for schools.

Congress late last year finally got its act together and retroactively restored the program, but only for three years. What happens next is guesswork.

Borough officials know they cannot count on timely and consistent federal funding, and they know that no one knows what the Legislature and a new governor will do next year to help schools. They are willing to step up and reassure the school district that they will make every effort to increase borough funding to the maximum amount allowed under state law and hold it there for years to come.

The intent is that while City Hall cannot control state or federal funding, it can at least make its own funding more predictable for the schools.

But there’s a catch. City Hall wants the school board to adopt new policies for the district’s two reserve funds for operating and maintenance expenses; a new policy to set an annual list of priority maintenance projects; and a new policy to make clear what maintenance spending is the responsibility of the borough, which owns the school buildings, and which projects are the responsibility of the school district.

While it is unusual for a borough to propose such a deal with its schools — boroughs in Alaska usually just sign the check and grumble about how districts spend the money — if an agreement is what it takes to fully fund the local share of school expenses, and if it doesn’t intrude on the school board’s responsibilities, then it’s a positive for students.

The policies proposed by the borough are not unreasonable, and the school board certainly could push for changes in the deal as it sees fit. But the goal for borough officials, the assembly, school board and administration should be reaching a deal that provides as much money as the town can afford for its students and their future.