Gov. Mike Dunleavy put out a message on X/Twitter on Monday that indicates he’s not entirely thrilled with the massive spending package for education sent to him by the Senate and House.
“My initial review of the education bill is that it falls far short of improving outcomes for students. It appears to do the same thing we have done for decades – just spend more money. It doesn’t support the Reads Act, it fails to improve access to public charter schools, and it does nothing to recruit and retain teachers. We can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect different results,” he wrote.
SB 140 has a quarter billion dollars of new education spending every year going forward in the $680 base student allocation, the largest boost to the spending formula in at least a decade.
That BSA spending is essentially a blank check, with no accountability measures in it to ensure better outcomes in Alaska’s failing schools. With some of the highest spending in the nation, students in Alaska still score at the bottom in almost every measure, except for charter schools, which are performing well in Alaska.
The governor is planning a press conference on Tuesday at 12:45 p.m., sources said, and SB 140 is going to be the topic. Whether he decides to sign or veto the bill in whole or in part, or whether he wants something from the Legislature in order to sign the bill will certainly be the top question reporters have for him.
The Senate put out a statement saying it is happy with the bill, but the announcement from the supermajority makes no mention of revenue sources. The only place to get the money is from Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends, which were cut by three-quarters by last year’s Senate.
SB 140 stripped out language to help charter schools thrive, and eliminated the governor’s priority, which was a retention bonus for teachers in Alaska. The teachers’ union did not want that bonus, possibly because it is outside the union’s ability to assess for union dues.
Some analysts say the bill’s funding for the Reads Act, which is to help students learn to read at grade level, is structured in such a way that it doesn’t really help, as it just goes into a district’s general funding pot.
