By DAVID BOYLE
Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued his budget vetoes on Thursday and added an $500 to the Base Student Allocation, the school funding formula. He reduced the Legislature’s budget $700 BSA increase to the more sustainable $500 increase, considering the downward pressure on oil prices.
The Anchorage School Board called an “emergency” meeting to discuss the impact on its FY26 budget, which was based on a $560 BSA increase. The reduced BSA will only have an impact of $4.3 million, yet the superintendent was outraged and threatened to take the governor to court.
This $4.3 million is only 0.7% of the operating budget ($594 million). That amount should be able to be found in the district’s seat cushions.
But the superintendent said that we have an “education emergency.”
Superintendent Bryantt seems to have a great knowledge of Alaska law and whether the statute (HB57) takes precedence over the operating budget (HB53). He threatens to take the case to the Alaska Supreme Court to decide the question of precedence.
He needs to be reminded that the Permanent Fund dividend amount question was decided by the Alaska Supreme Court a few years ago. Even though the law stated that the dividend shall be a certain percentage, the court decided that the Legislature had appropriation powers and could decide the dividend amount according to its own whims.
One wonders what the district’s litigation would cost and if it would increase student achievement.
Rep. Alyse Galvin, founding member of Great Alaska Schools-funding arm of the AEA, testified that, “We are at risk of systemic collapse.” She’s been at that for years and this is just another “the sky is falling” remark to activate parents.
The president of the Anchorage Education Association (teachers’ union), Corey Aist, said, “Some kindergarten classes will have upwards of 30 students”. He also stated that this is the 4th year that the ASD has more than 400 resignations.
He failed to mention why these teachers are leaving the district. He noted that there would be 62 elementary school position vacancies next year. Most importantly, he did not state if these vacancies were in the classroom.
He made no mention of his union’s going-in position to raise his members’ salaries by an astounding 15% for one year. With less BSA monies, some of his goals may not be met.
Rosalyn Grady-Weich, NAACP-Anchorage education chair, said, “This reduction in the BSA will disproportionately hurt black, brown, and indigenous students”. She had no data to prove her assertion. She said, “It will eliminate Equity and replace it with a system where only the privileged thrive.”
She seems to be stuck in the pre-integration days of the 1960s.
She then charged that the governor wanted to dismantle public education. She had no proof to back that up as well. Just opinions and anecdotes.
Superintendent Bryantt spoke the truth when he said, “For ASD my commitment is to keep as many jobs as I can”.
Board president Jacobs attacked Gov. Dunleavy, saying that there is a lack of leadership in Juneau. It’s unfortunate that the real lack of leadership appears to be in the ASD Board, with its refusal to reduce the non-classroom funding such as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Community Engagement department which costs $724,122.
Here’s another department that could be reduced, Mental Health. For FY26 it has 15.3 FTEs and costs $2.1 million.
The Technology department has 111 FTEs at a cost of more than $27.5 million.
Finally, board member Bellamy asked the $64,000 question: What if we do nothing?
The answer was utterly amazing. The district’s CFO responded saying the district would find the money somewhere. There might have enough in the fund balance, he said.
And just like that, the budget problem was solved.
Superintendent Bryantt, however, had to get the final jab in at Gov. Dunleavy. He said, “My key take away is that we need to ensure we never have leaders that will ever do this to Alaskan children again.”
He finished by saying that the commissioner and the governor have shown a lot of recklessness and cruelty, in his opinion.
Rather than bemoaning this “dramatic’ decrease in funding and kicking the can down the road until next year, they could actually do what they were hired or elected to do, which is to lead.
I will close by saying to the superintendent, “Real leaders lead and solve problems. They don’t hide behind victimhood.”
David Boyle is the education writer for Must Read Alaska.
