More than likely, the Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy will strike a deal next month to increase state funding for K-12 education in Alaska. That’s the big checkbook fight as lawmakers face a May 21 constitutional deadline to finish their work.
The increase in state aid will not be enough to solve all the money problems at school districts across Alaska, but it will be enough to prevent the worst of the crisis from hitting students, teachers and parents for the 2025-2026 school year.
In Wrangell’s case, it probably will be enough money to buy the school district and borough a year to come up with a better plan than merely hoping that more state and federal funding can prevent painful decisions of cutting programs or raising taxes.
The school board and borough assembly are separate entities, and the assembly is limited by law to approving the borough contribution to schools and cannot mess line by line with the school district’s spending decisions. But both elected bodies are responsible to the same community. And that community has a long-term money problem at the schools.
Enrollment has not returned to its pre-pandemic count. Absent lots of families with lots of kids moving to town, it’s unlikely the schools will grow much from this year’s 260 students.
Fewer students mean less money under the state’s per-pupil formula. Yet a lot of the district’s costs are fixed, regardless of how many students are in the chairs.
Adding to the financial woes of fewer students and inadequate state funding, Wrangell must confront the added problem that a big chunk of federal money may have gone away forever.
The Secure Rural Schools program had been around since 2000 to help out communities hit economically by the decline of the timber industry. Wrangell is a prime example. The borough used that money, around $800,000 a year, to supplement sales tax revenues for the local contribution to the school district budget.
But the Republican-led U.S. House last year failed to reauthorize the program, even though it had passed the Senate. The odds that the House with its budget-cutting attitude will restore the program this year are far from certain, which is to say not so good.
Without the Secure Rural Schools money, the borough is in a tough spot: The more it gives to the school district, the more it has to take from somewhere else — or raise taxes. For the school district, the more it drains its reserves to pay for operations, the sooner the bank balance will show nothing left.
After the Legislature and governor settle next month on the amount of state aid for schools, the borough and school district will need to talk about the hard choices for the future: What kind of school system does the community want, and how to pay for it.
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