By REP. KEVIN MCCABE
As a state representative, I have a front-row seat to the transformation of Alaska’s public education system into what I’ve come to call the Alaska Education Industrial Complex, a sprawling, self-serving machine that treats our children not as students, but as commodities.
We count students not for what they’ve learned or achieved, but for how much revenue they generate. This system props up bloated administrations, rewards failure with more money, and defends its own survival at the expense of those it is supposed to serve, our kids.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s June 12 veto of $200 from the $700 Base Student Allocation increase for Fiscal Year 2026 was not just about numbers on a spreadsheet. It was a signal, a warning shot, that we cannot continue down this road.
I wholeheartedly agree with the governor on this: Funding without accountability is a disservice to Alaska’s children. The BSA veto was not about “starving” education. Rather, it is a challenge to a system that’s been protecting itself for far too long.
The foundation formula we use to fund education in Alaska is outdated, flawed, and designed to feed the system, not the student. Tied to Average Daily Membership, this model means every student is a line on a ledger. When enrollment declines, as it has across the state from 132,000 students in 2016 to about 128,000 today, districts scramble, not to improve outcomes, but to maintain funding. That’s not education; that’s survival of a failing business.
Take Anchorage: 6,600 students lost since 2010, millions in funding gone, and yet instead of reevaluating how we deliver education, the district doubles down on high-cost projects like a $50 million rebuild of Inlet View Elementary. Meanwhile, schools with half-empty classrooms are shuttered, programs are cut, and families are told there’s simply not enough money, all while more administrators are hired. The truth? The money is there; it’s just being spent to protect bureaucracies, not teach children.
We spend more per student than nearly every other state, $18,313 as of 2020, yet outcomes continue to decline. Why? Because too much of that funding never reaches the classroom. Administrative costs continue to balloon while frontline educators, students, and families are left with the scraps. Thus many families vote with their feet and leave the school, exacerbating and accelerating the prime issue.
My proposed amendment to HB 69 would have consolidated Alaska’s 54 school districts into 30 districts by 2027. That’s not just a number; it’s potentially tens of millions of dollars redirected from administration to instruction.
But when you threaten the system, the system fights back. Alaska Council of School Administrators, Superintendents, school boards, and public sector unions closed ranks to protect their kingdoms. Their opposition wasn’t about kids. It was about power. It was about preserving jobs that depend not on student success, but on the size of the bureaucracy.
Rural schools, particularly those serving Alaska Native communities, have been neglected for decades. Crumbling facilities, moldy classrooms, and disappearing programs are the norm. And when we do find programs that work, like rural career guidance initiatives that doubled degree completion, we defund them. At the same time, correspondence programs like IDEA flourish without oversight. More than 7,500 students are enrolled, yet many never take statewide tests. It’s funding without performance, and once again, the system looks the other way.
We’ve reached a point where less than 30% of our students are proficient in English or math. We rank dead last in reading. One in five young Alaskans is disconnected from school and the workforce entirely. Chronic absenteeism has become a rampant, yet little discussed, issue.
This situation is not just embarrassing, it’s generationally devastating and contributes to the suicide rate, the homeless problem, and the poor economics in rural Alaska. It’s the predictable result of a system designed to feed itself, not educate our children.
The governor’s veto saved $50.6 million this year, reducing the BSA increase from $700 to $500. Critics say it hurts schools. I say it exposes a problem we can no longer ignore. We cannot keep writing blank checks to a system that resists reform at every turn. If we are serious about improving education in this state, we must be serious about accountability.
Charter school expansion, reading incentives, cellphone bans, these were good, albeit week, starts in HB 57. But we need more. We need audits to shine a light on where the money is spent. We need a funding formula that rewards performance, not attendance. And we need to stop mortgaging our children’s futures to protect administrative empires.
We must put students first. That means consolidating districts to reduce redundant overhead and free up funds for classrooms; expanding school choice to inject competition into a stagnant system; auditing every dollar that doesn’t make it into the classroom or directly improve outcomes; fixing rural infrastructure where students are literally learning in unsafe buildings; redirecting unspent Covid-19 relief funds, $96 million of which expired in January, away from bureaucracy and into instruction; and rewarding excellence with teacher bonuses, not superintendent perks.
What we are witnessing today is the commodification of Alaska’s students. They are merely headcounts for funding formulas, statistics for bond measures, and talking points for bureaucrats defending their paychecks.
Our children should be our future. Students are our obligation. And they deserve a system that sees them for who they are, learners, dreamers, doers, not revenue streams.
Governor Dunleavy’s veto was a tough pill to swallow, but it was necessary. It reminded us that the real crisis is not underfunding, it’s misplaced priorities and poor management.
It’s time to stop counting kids for dollars. It’s time to start educating them.
Rep. Kevin McCabe serves in the Legislature on behalf of District 30, Big Lake.
It’s also time to STOP RAIDING/Stealing the PFD for school expenses..Many students could help paying for their own schooling with their PFD if it wasn’t STOLLEN every year for UNKNOWN EXPENSES; never being accounted for in the budgets.
CEA Response to “Counting Kids for Cash” by Rep. Kevin McCabe:
Rep. Kevin McCabe’s commentary paints Alaska’s entire public education system as a corrupt cartel — bloated, broken, and beyond redemption. But let’s be clear: you don’t help students by attacking the very people who teach, feed, transport, and support them every single day.
Yes, there are inefficiencies in the system. Yes, we need reform. But slashing funding while vilifying public employees is not reform — it’s a shortcut to collapse.
Let’s unpack a few key points:
🔹 “Counting kids for cash”?
That’s not how funding works — it’s how budgeting works. Schools need to staff for the number of students they have. You don’t build a rural school on faith that maybe students will come. You build based on enrollment, the same way the Legislature builds state services around population data. That’s not corrupt — it’s practical governance.
🔹 Yes, Alaska spends a lot per student — but we also educate in some of the harshest, most remote conditions in the country.
That includes flying fuel into villages, maintaining school buildings in permafrost zones, and delivering services across thousands of miles. Pretending we can educate a child in Aniak for the same cost as one in Palmer is either misinformed or deliberately misleading.
🔹 Consolidating districts doesn’t guarantee savings — but it does guarantee fewer local voices.
How is eliminating rural school boards and centralizing control going to improve outcomes in places where local culture, geography, and needs vary so widely? That’s not accountability — it’s erasure.
🔹 Rep. McCabe accuses districts of defending “kingdoms.”
The truth is: many of us are defending classrooms, defending food service for low-income students, and defending paraeducators and secretaries who already do more with less. Cutting funding doesn’t hurt bureaucracy — it hurts the people actually doing the work.
🔹 Public employees are not the enemy.
From secretaries to aides, from bus mechanics to custodians, these are the people keeping the doors open and the lights on. If you want accountability, start by respecting the people doing the job — not labeling them a cartel because they belong to a union.
If you truly believe in outcomes, here’s what we need:
✅ A funding formula tied to actual inflation, not one-time bailouts that expire the moment the Legislature changes hands.
✅ Teacher and support staff retention strategies, including retirement options that attract long-term investment in our state.
✅ More oversight and performance audits, sure — but paired with stable, predictable funding so schools can plan long-term, not react to political whims.
✅ Meaningful local input from rural communities and parents, not top-down restructuring that silences them.
Let’s fix what’s broken, but let’s stop pretending the system is beyond saving. The real “industrial complex” isn’t education — it’s the growing industry of political attacks on public institutions to justify privatization.
Alaska’s kids deserve better than slogans. They deserve investment, consistency, and respect — and so do the people who serve them every day.
Rick that reads exactly as if AI had written it.
Rick, where not talking “budgeting” – this article speaks to execution, so don’t conflate the two.
No surprise that as the Gov. School Union talking head dejour, you’re acting indignant on reform and overhaul of a broken system you caused. You’re willfully ignornt if you think the Government education Industry isn’t exactly how Rep. McCabe describes it.
The process isn’t “broken:” It’s running exactly how the NEA intended. When the previous NEA talking head Tim Parker threw a hissy-fit in 2020 that Alaska would send money to Florida to support the education ASD was unwilling or capable to provide, not ONCE in his embarrassing letter did he say “ASD can provide this support,” instead- it was about money getting taken, and only money getting taken.
Stop talking in terms of money and start talking about academic output. Alaska kids deserve better than slogans. If you actually “respected” them, you’d demand all educational support options- including Homeschooling and non-Government options, instead of being a blind acolyte for your organization without any penalty for being wrong.
The number of school districts should be decreased to 10 or less.
But but we have to protect our,phoney baloney jobs”. Says the unqualified superintendent
Thank you for your spot-on observations, sir!
As a classic example, just before the Juneau school board consolidated the school district early last year, I was part of a group of parents and students who demanded that the school board, and especially the superintendent, be transparent with their financial figures for the consolidation. All that was ever presented were truncated, disconnected, or “big picture” spreadsheets. We analyzed the information, and had it reviewed by professionals, and we were unable to make sense of it, with what we were provided. We managed to get several members of the school board attempt to demand more information from the superintendent, but they were stymied by he and other members of the school board. We tried to get those oppositional members of the school board replaced by more reasonable members, who would put our students first, and the town, instead, stood behind them.
So what can we do about it? We tried really hard! We reached out to members of government and multiple attornies, we worked hard to navigate the bulky and bureaucratic regulations related to the request for transparency in information for the superintendent, the only employee of our duly-appointed school board. And, at the end of the day, we were entirely impotent.
Excellent article Kevin, thank you. Higher capital expenditures are critical to keep K-12 schools and all our critical infrastructure functioning. Too bad the Operating budget is extremely bloated, sucking all the air out of the room. We give out way too many subsidies, grants, and funds that aren’t tracked. On the school front, unfortunately ASD chose to approve a higher budget recently than they had during the Covid funding peak! When they threatened youth sports, the beloved drama program, and the Gifted and Talented school, they showed their cards to anyone that was paying attention. And no, more behavioral health counselors won’t fix our anxiety-ridden kids, parents can however. On a critical note, it really is expensive to maintain education in rural areas, and our smallest school districts are sadly suffering. School major maintenance capital projects must be funded. Thankfully as development ramps up, more families are moving back out to rural areas to give their kids more than just a classroom education. ASD, FBNSB and other large districts would be wise to make adjustments to recreate a true Alaskan education. Hint, the Ed-tech complex is not the answer.
Very well stated! You have given good back up as we state our case in the marketplace and and neighborhoods this summer.
Alaska public schools are home – everyone associated with them should be ashamed and embarrassed.
Public schools – 3 administrators for every teacher.
Private schools – 1 administrator for 3 teachers.
McCabe is right.
Increased funding does nothing but preserve and I crease the bureaucracy.
What’s being done to our children, in the name of teachers unions, is immoral.
How do these people sleep at night knowing most of the children they are responsible for are functionally illiterate?
Teachers Union fatigue.
Shame…
Oh, come on! We’re paying roughly $20,000 per student, per year already- somehow, that’s not enough? As a parent of three, I wish I’d HAD an income of $60,000 per year as the district gets! For six hours a day of school, $20,000 per year is outrageous!