Students, parents, school board members plead for more state funding

Dozens of Alaska students, parents and school board members from across the state visited the Legislature on Feb. 10, painting a picture of crowded classrooms, teacher shortages, agonizing school closures, loss of learning opportunities and uncertainty about the future.

"We have cut and cut and cut, year after year after year, due to stagnant funding from the state," said Bobby Burgess, a school board member from Fairbanks. "We have trimmed the fat. We have cut into the flesh, and we are beginning to cut the very bones of the district."

School groups from across the state - from Nome to Unalaska to Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island - shared emotional testimony, and expressed support for House Bill 69, which would provide a significant boost to the state's per-pupil funding.

They spoke before a joint session of the House and Senate education committees, as part of the annual legislative fly-in and youth advocacy initiative with the Association of Alaska School Boards.

"On Feb. 4, through tears at the dais, I voted to close my own children's school, Pearl Creek," said Morgan Dulian, a parent and school board member in Fairbanks. "The next morning, my heart shattered as my son hid under his covers crying and whispered to me, 'Mama, I wanted you to vote differently.' Enough is enough."

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District board voted to close three elementary schools to address a budget shortfall.

Ahead of the Legislature's final budget for next year, and uncertainty around whether additional funding will be granted, many schools are facing major budget shortfalls and grappling with school closures and consolidations. Other districts facing school closures include Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kodiak and Ketchikan.

"It forces administrators to spend most of their time just focused on the budget, when they should be focusing on things that make school worth coming to," said Francis Myers, a high school student from Sitka. "It's my dream to have a school where kids are excited to come in and they are excited to learn, and that can't happen until we address the foundational issues, which is funding."

Rural and urban districts statewide have faced budget cuts for years, but are now reaching crisis levels, students and school officials said.

"Twenty years ago, we lost music, art, home economics and full-time shop class," said Rebecca Hammon, a school board member from Bristol Bay Borough School District based in Naknek.

"About 10 years ago, we lost our library. We haven't had a school nurse in the whole 30 years I've lived there," she said. "We no longer have any single-grade elementary classes. We had to double up. We don't fund our sports anymore. We don't have any foreign language really. No electives of any kind. We're kind of down to just the bare, maybe like a one-room schoolhouse would provide."

Teacher turnover is high in many parts of Alaska, and students expressed the stress and frustration around the loss of educators.

David Gibson, school board president of the Unalaska City School District is a former teacher. After nine years as a math and science teacher, he said he was forced to leave the role and change careers to firefighting in order to support his family.

"I implore you to fulfill your constitutional obligation to fund education," he told legislators. "Alaskan educators are leaving this great state at alarming rates. Just this year, 33% of our certified staff are leaving the Unalaska City School District, not only because our board can't afford to pay them a wage that they can live on or frankly, a wage that they deserve."

Many of those who testified made a plea to lawmakers to invest in schools, and in the future of Alaska, including school board president Tony Lovell, with the Southeast Island School District, which spans Prince of Wales and Baranof islands.

"I have seen firsthand the dedication of our teachers, the ambition of our students and the challenges that we face in providing a quality education with limited resources," Lovell said. "Your support in securing equitable funding for public education will shape the future of our state. I urge you to act now."

The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.