Dunleavy supports dismantling U.S. Department of Education

In a statement made about the U.S. Department of Education wrongfully attacking Alaska, Gov. Mike Dunleavy came out and said it: He believes the U.S. Department of Education should be dismantled.

Must Read Alaska reported on the matter earlier, describing how the federal government has finally admitted Alaska’s distribution of Covid-era relief money was not a problem after all:

Since MRAK’s report, Dunleavy has issued a statement:

“Today marks the end of a saga the Biden-Harris administration started that was a tremendous waste of time and resources. From the very beginning, it was clear that the U.S. Department of Education’s allegations were meritless. Alaska was not going to back down because we knew we were right,” he said. “On the bright side, this saga is a wonderful case study of the U.S. Department of Education’s abuse of power and serves as further evidence for why I support the concept of eliminating it.”

Commissioner of Education Deena Bishop also weighed in: “It is a triumphant day for Alaska’s students, as our Maintenance of Equity battle with the US Department of Education has ended, and Alaska’s stance on the matter has been vindicated,” Bishop said. “After standing firm behind our Legislature’s bipartisan funding formula, which has been repeatedly independently acclaimed as one of the most equitable in the nation, the federal government has finally conceded, admitting what we knew all along -we are putting the children of Alaska first.”

Maintenance of Equity was a Biden provision inserted into the American Rescue Plan Act intended to ensure low-income local school districts were not disproportionately cut if a state reduced education funding, Dunleavy explained.

On one hand, the federal government had alleged Alaska provided too little funding to some urban school districts, implying Alaska provided disproportionately too much funding to rural districts.

On the other hand, the formula Alaska used to determine funding amounts is one that the U.S. Department of Education had already approved.

Further, the governor’s office explained, Alaska did not cut education funding. If a school district received a lower funding amount, it was due to a drop in student enrollment. 

The Education Department, a massive bureaucracy that skims tax dollars that should go to states, failed to understand the “hold harmless” provision of Alaska’s funding formula.

In Alaska, if a district’s enrollment drops more than 5%, the district does not immediately see a change in funding. Instead, the hold harmless provision allows the state to continue funding the district with amounts that step down over time. This is a benefit to school districts that prevents drastic changes in funding amounts and allows districts time to plan for a new level of funding based on changes in enrollment.

E”D attempted to strong-arm Alaska into providing more funding to certain urban districts, although ED changed its demands on the dollar amounts and even which districts were allegedly owed the funds. 

Some Alaska legislators, such as Sen. Loki Tobin, chair of Senate Education, latched onto the federal demands in their attempt to increase the base student allocation formula at any cost and lambasted the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development’s leadership, even though testimony to the Senate Education Committee from a national expert supported the State of Alaska’s position.

Earlier this year, Dunleavy vetoed an addition to the budget that had been made by the Legislature to resolve the dispute with the federal government.

“I swore to uphold the Constitution of Alaska when I was elected,” Gov. Dunleavy said. “As long as I am Governor, I will continue to enforce the statutes of the great State of Alaska, regardless of what unelected bureaucrats demand.”