Alaska education advocates are gearing up for another attempt to substantially increase state funding for public schools, but they say it’s unclear how a looming legislative stalemate will be broken.
Last year, the Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy failed to approve an expansive education package after protracted negotiations. Legislators fell one vote short of overriding Dunleavy’s veto of a historic school funding increase.
The Legislature later approved a major $176 million one-year funding boost for schools as a compromise. School administrators said that helped, but its temporary nature reduced its usefulness. The extra money — about an 11% boost in the state’s per-pupil funding formula — covered only the 2024-2025 school year.
In December, Dunleavy indicated he would soon unveil a roughly $200 million education package in a fiscal environment strained by lower oil prices. The governor’s office has declined to say what would be in the education package or when it would be unveiled.
However, education advocates say a $500 million school funding increase is needed annually to make up for 15 years of losses from inflation.
Conservative lawmakers have typically been reluctant to increase education funding unless it’s tied to reforms to improve Alaska’s bottom-of-the-nation test scores.
While education advocates say they welcome policy debates, they are focused on passing a permanent and substantial school funding increase. But they remain pessimistic.
“We’re just so far behind. I worry about that. That’s a lot of stress,” said Lon Garrison, executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards.
The Anchorage School District is facing a $111 million deficit. Some high school classes have 40 students; some elementary school classes have 30 students. Without a funding increase, class sizes will keep increasing, administrators say.
The Wrangell School District is budgeted to draw about $700,000 from its reserves this year to cover spending, leaving the account too low to handle next year unless the state and/or the borough increase their funding levels.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has a projected $16 million deficit and strained savings. School theaters, a swimming pool and extracurricular activities could be on the chopping block.
“This time around, there’s really no way around significant cuts across the board,” said Kenai Superintendent Clayton Holland.
The Juneau School District recently faced a severe budget crisis due partly to accounting errors. Superintendent Frank Hauser highlighted the district’s efforts to address its fiscal shortfalls and declining enrollment.
“We closed three schools; consolidated two high schools, two middle schools, and transitioned our sixth graders back to elementary school,” he said.
Without additional funding, deep cuts could be needed in staffing and programs, he said.
Rising power, health care and insurance costs have strained budgets. Rural school administrators describe crumbling facilities. “We are in an absolute crisis,” said independent Sitka Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, a former teacher.
In September, Anchorage Democratic Sen. Löki Tobin requested a memorandum from the nonpartisan Legislative Finance Division that analyzed the impacts of inflation on state education funding since 2010.
Over the past 15 years, the $5,960 Base Student Allocation — the state’s per-student funding formula — has increased by $280 at an added cost of $70 million per year to the state.
The division found the formula would need to have been increased by $1,808 over that period to make up for inflation. Extrapolated over the next fiscal year, the expected extra cost to the state would be over $500 million annually.
Some members of the Legislature, though, have been skeptical about the benefits of a blanket funding increase without policy changes.
“We should always be talking about outcomes and ways to improve outcomes,” said Anchorage Republican Rep.-elect Mia Costello, the incoming House minority leader.
Palmer Republican Sen. Shelley Hughes echoed Costello, and said additional funding should be targeted to classrooms. She supports school choice by expanding how public education funds are used at private schools.
“We’ve got to do something differently, right? We all know the definition of insanity,” she said.
But time could be running out for legislators to act to avoid a trip to the courts.
Last year, the Coalition for Education Equity threatened to sue the state, arguing that current funding levels run afoul of the Alaska Constitution’s requirement to maintain a system of public education.
Executive director Caroline Storm said the coalition is waiting to see whether legislators approve a funding increase this year. She said educators and parents can’t wait. “I don’t know how much longer we can go on.”
Dunleavy has pushed for more funding for homeschooled students, and provisions intended to expand charter schools. He vetoed an education package last year, partly because it did not allow a board that the governor appoints to approve new charter schools — a power currently reserved for locally elected boards.
Fifty-six of 60 legislators initially voted to approve the education package. After Dunleavy’s veto, 17 Republicans switched their votes, dooming the override effort to failure.
That vote became a central campaign issue in several key legislative races in the Nov. 5 election.
Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski said he expects the Legislature will pass an education measure this year. Bipartisan majorities are set to govern in the House and Senate. But the House, in particular, remains narrowly divided, with the majority holding a 21-19 margin.
Looming in the background is an unresolved lawsuit challenging how public homeschool allotments have been increasingly used to pay for tuition at private schools.
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