By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO
Critics of Alaska’s education system argue that its entrenched, top‑down bureaucratic management has created a stagnant structure that not only drives up costs but also stifles innovation and accountability.
They point to the widening gap between escalating per-student expenses and persistently mediocre academic outcomes as stark evidence that the current model is failing the state’s youth and undermining Alaska’s long‑term economic competitiveness.
This failing system not only diminishes the quality of education but also burdens society with higher crime rates, increased welfare dependency, and a general erosion of civic vitality.
In response, a multi‑pronged plan of action for the Alaska Department of Law is suggested.
Alaska must draw on established legal precedents—such as the Supreme Court decisions in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Carson v. Makin—to challenge policies that discriminate against religious or alternative educational models, thereby opening the door for more localized and diverse educational options.
These cases set a clear precedent that state policies cannot unjustly exclude certain types of schools from public benefits, and they provide a potential framework for reforming an education system steeped in outdated, one-size-fits-all approaches.
This also includes Alexander, et al. v. Acting Commissioner Heidi Teshner (July 2024), in which the Alaska Supreme Court upheld the state’s school correspondence program as both statutorily and constitutionally sound, ensuring that geographic isolation does not deny students a rigorous education.
These cases demonstrate that state governments can act as self-regulators when confronted with statutory provisions that conflict with constitutional mandates. But can state governments also act as self-regulators when their constitutional mandates run afoul of US constitutional requirements? This is answered below.
The Alaska Department of Law must adopt a robust legal strategy to establish standing by demonstrating that the Department of Education’s reliance on archaic, top‑down policies promulgated by the state constitution’s Article VII, Section 1, and Article IX, Section 6, directly impairs the state’s capacity to enforce education law, and protect constitutional rights, such as the Free Exercise Clause.
This could involve presenting concrete evidence—such as increased litigation, overwhelming administrative burdens, and budgetary distortions—that directly link the failing system to measurable harms affecting public safety and fiscal sustainability. For example, statistical data showing correlations between poor educational outcomes and higher crime rates or welfare dependency would help substantiate the claim that the current model inflicts a unique and quantifiable injury on the state, beyond the general grievances shared by its citizens.
Ultimately, if these legal and administrative reforms are not enacted, Alaska risks sacrificing not only the academic and economic future of its youth but also the very foundation of its civic society. The goal must be to create an education system that nurtures an informed and innovative citizenry—one capable of propelling Alaska into a prosperous future.
Alaska has failed to achieve this goal. Now is the time to correct it.
Only by dismantling the outdated, top-heavy bureaucratic structures and replacing them with truly democratic, locally accountable systems can our state break free from the corrupt grip of self-serving politicians and the special interests they serve. Without this fundamental change, our educational policies will remain hostage to a cycle of inefficiency and neglect, where decisions are driven not by the public good but by the greed of those who prioritize their own power and profits over the future of our children.
The next approach may be simpler but certainly extremely unpopular.
Reduce the size of the Alaska Department of Education.
Reducing the Alaska Department of Education to an office operation responsible for issuing 53 checks—one for each school district—offers several potential benefits and features.
This streamlined approach could result in significant cost savings by eliminating layers of bureaucracy and administrative overhead. With fewer employees and a centralized process, oversight could improve, reducing the likelihood of misallocated funds and inefficiencies. Additionally, a leaner department may promote quicker decision-making and a more agile response to budgetary needs across districts.
The implications for democratic legitimacy are stellar. Bottom-up control of education will bring a new sense of discipline to Alaska’s education system. Streamlining operations can increase transparency and accountability by cutting through bureaucratic layers, making state funding more directly observable by local stakeholders. This could empower communities to more easily track and influence the allocation of resources, thereby reinforcing the democratic principle of government responsiveness.
While critics warn that consolidating education management into a single office might diminish local autonomy, this very centralization will amplify local control over education funding. By reducing the sprawling bureaucracy of the Alaska Department of Education to one streamlined office responsible for only the distribution of funds to all 53 school districts, the process becomes more transparent and accountable, thereby empowering local communities.
With fewer administrative layers, individual districts and their stakeholders can more directly monitor and influence funding decisions, ensuring that resources are allocated equitably and according to local priorities.
What about meeting state education standards and teacher certifications? Why not include that in the domain of local district responsibilities, or even more innovative, allow individual schools to succeed or fail within districts by the implementation of their own standards which of course meet constitutional requirements.
Educators and administrators are on the ground level. They indeed have a much better understanding of education than someone in the complex bureaucratic universe of the Alaska Department of Education.
In this model, the single office concept acts as a responsive intermediary, cutting through bureaucratic inertia and making it easier for communities to assert their voice in the education process—potentially strengthening democratic legitimacy rather than eroding it, which is the current failing model.
However, such a reduction is not without challenges. Critics can contend centralized state funded education must have a bureaucracy as a single office concept may struggle with the complexity and diversity of requirements across 53 districts, each with its own unique financial and operational demands.
However, each district brings the ability to resolve subject matter issues through either statewide experience through organization of the 53 districts or from experiences of the lower 48. There really isn’t anything cryptic or complex about educating children in a well-monitored local environment.
Claiming that overburdening staff will cause errors, delay fund distribution, or lead to a loss of specialized expertise that undermines our ability to tackle complex educational challenges statewide is a logical fallacy—a convenient excuse to perpetuate a system that is already failing.
Finally, ensuring robust communication and accountability between a centralized office and a diverse array of local entities presents significant logistical challenges. However, as the organization is streamlined, these challenges can be mitigated through a careful balance between cost savings and the provision of tailored, district-specific support, ensuring that neither the quality of education nor effective financial management is compromised.
Michael Tavoliero is an Alaskan and senior writer for Must Read Alaska.
Burn it to the ground.
Add salt the earth afterwards and you end up with the Roman solution for Carthage. Not a bad solution for this problem either. Cheers –
It’s obviously broke, so let’s throw it in the trash.
We need a do over and this time you can’t have no career politicians on the board
Vouchers, vouchers, and more vouchers.
Spot On, Michael. Education in Alaska public schools is where the teacher’s unions and the Democrats ply their sleazy trade. That is, getting kids to change their biological sex and become indoctrinated to the Democrat way of thinking.
“Bottom up” is the problem in Anchorage. The locally elected ASD School Board is a compete cesspool of Leftism and a lovesong to CRT nonsense. Donley is the only exception. They couldn’t even be bothered to find a qualified Superintendent. Shameful.
Mike makes sense. He usually does. Burning the AK DOE to the ground only opens up opportunities for Republicans to abdicate, trip all over themselves and let the (D)ems make the new department all about DEI, CRT, NEA, AFT and every other leftist issue and group and double down on everything that isn’t working. Do we really want the likes of Cathy Giessel crafting a new department?
I didn’t think so.
Two or three people under the Governor should be assigned to coordinate and facilitate Educational issues. We don’t need no stinking Department.
HeySD
First time blogging
When I was a kid I learned how to bead in a small piece of seal skin from an Alaskan native in Inlet View Elementary. And at Romig there was a class dedicated to learning about Alaska Native traditions, The importance of the Raven and the potlatch etc. For one hour a day in middle school Alaska traditions were imprinted on me. Not so with my kids. They got the same , same, everybody from Florida to Alaska same , same Education . Nothing about the Raven, potlatch , Education needs to be more organic. Like it used to be. We need to learn about the history of our surroundings. Not a general learning of the world according to the department of education. It’s absolutely crazy the way that they have standardized education! Geography and history matters to little ones! I wish all those well who are pushing for change that effects the education of Alaskan little ones.
Maybe some of your readers remember Mrs. O’brians English class at Romig? I forget the man who taught Alaska studies. However, Alaska studies were always there. From learning how to bead on a piece of seal skin from a Native Alaskan until the history of the raven.
I agree that the department of Education should be dissolved, and the more organic, and true to our natural where about education should be reinstated.
Suzanne I totally agree with dissolving the department of education. From my own experience and then many years later to my kids experience. It’s just a devolving learning. It’s as though they want all students to learn the SAME thing , regardless of their geographical location. It eventually will just bore and confuse young students in the public education system.
Maybe if the schools taught more about who we are and where we are, maybe we would come more brighter as a community member , and be more outraged at 50 people dying in the winter cold.
Test scores and literacy rates indicate we have some of the worst schools in the nation.
We are failing our children – this is their only chance.
Vouchers, charter schools, home schooling, trade schools – ANYTHING but the “one size fits all” approach we currently have.
P.s. the Anchorage school superintendent is an abysmal failure – where are they finding these people – no more DEI – merit only.
USA Ranked last in the world! I would say something needs to be done. CLOSE IT!!
Dismantle it. I’m sure the State education system wouldn’t even realize it was gone and may even save a few bucks to boot.
> dismantle our state Department of Education
Please do.
We must push power and agency down to families and away from the centralizers.
Interesting concept, and not out of bounds considering the clear failure of the current model. I can see where school districts in organized boroughs could flourish with greater local opportunity to examine the weak or nonexistent link between the current model for teacher certification and student success. There are other models showing great effectiveness in terms of preparing teachers for the important work of schooling. I wonder about the capacity of unorganized boroughs schools – some which are single-community schools serving relatively few students – to benefit. I say that, and then have to consider the wildly successful story of “The Kids from Nowhere”. Maybe those districts would form their own self-funded association to handle common interest tasks?
This idea might effectively delete the strong link between the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development and Federal programs: about 90% of the payroll in the Alaska Department is paid using Federal funds in response to past legislative moves to reduce State general fund support for department administration. If my paycheck is paid in Federal funds, it tends to color my fealty. It could be one of the reasons past attempts at Department reform have essentially failed.
Another thought to ponder: State support for school buildings. It’s a bid deal and affects the construction industry as well in terms of a regular stream of publicly funded and high-dollar construction projects.
Continuing on the same path is unlikely to change anything. Thanks for the thought process.
Funding should follow the child. Competition can improve education.
The charter school and Idea along with online schools seem to get results.
Trade education should be respected.
Note trans education per TRUMP must be removed…what books and and curriculum is still in our children’s schools! What a waste of tax money went to get trans promotion in our children’s school!
Executive Order: Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling is an executive order that President Donald Trump (R) issued on January 29, 2025, during his second term in office.[1]
Executive orders are directives the president writes to officials within the executive branch requiring them to take or stop some action related to policy or management. They are numbered, published in the Federal Register, cite the authority by which the president is making the order, and the Office of Management and Budget issues budgetary impact analyses for each order.[2][3] Click here to read more about executive orders issued during Trump’s second term.
‘https://ballotpedia.org/Executive_Order:_Ending_Radical_Indoctrination_in_K-12_Schooling_(Donald_Trump,_2025)
Two things. First, this piece sidestepped the ongoing debate over the need for so many school districts. As I understand it from reading my history, city school districts and REAAs in the Unorganized Borough were established largely because local areas sought to take local control of education away from the BIA school system. Are the reasons for those districts to exist still relevant today, or could they be merged with other districts? For example, after the Denali Borough incorporated, YKSD paid Nenana City Schools to educate its handful of students along a 40-mile stretch of the Parks Highway, instead of opening a separate school in that area.
Second, how would this affect the State Archives and State Library? All I ever hear about them these days is how badly underfunded they are. There’s been an ongoing battle to avoid losing the state’s history, which is seemingly even more of a lost cause given the inherent “here today, gone tomorrow” nature of online information. These days, the average person who works in that field is far more interested in their own future than in whether the historical record is being properly kept.
Good plan.
Education by local control, without state or federal meddling, is how education in our country functioned until the late 1800’s. People were far better educated under that structure. It was when the bureaucrats and ‘ruling classes’ saw an opportunity to use education as a means of social engineering they began to meddle in it. Read Underground History of American Education by John Gatto, or NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education by Samuel Blumenfeld for some eye opening history of the journey from then to here. Mr. Tavoliero’s idea is common sense and would work well but good luck prying power and control out of the hands of the massive behemoth called the Department of Education, deeply enmeshed with the massive NEA union.
I heard the other day that about 25% of our workforce is from out of state. I wonder if our poor education system plays much of a roll in that statistic.
Do whatever it takes to get results. Make sure the money goes to the classroom and not the administration. Be sure that what is taught is really education, not social DEI and confusing the kids with gender stuff. Enough! Demand the kids get back to reading, writing, and math. Make the kids accountable for their learning. In the native areas. teach their traditions as well. If the school administrators do not go along – fire them! Get some common sense people to administrate the schools and GET THE PARENTS INVOLVED! Transparency on the whole education issue.
Very nice commentary with appropriate solutions. This same administrative restructuring should be done at all 53 districts! Critical thinking not critical race!
There are 4400 employees at the US dept of education. 267 state employees at education. How much of the state’s employees are shuffling paperwork from the Us Dept? I will bet it is plenty. When I once visited a rural school, the administrator said they spent more time on dept of education paperwork than teaching students. Said if they stacked the paper up it would be more than a foot tall If the feds do away with its department, sending the money to the states, can we have a proportionate reduction here? Send the money to the districts and let them determine what is best for their students. I don’t know if I am right about this but its what it looks like to me.
The entire State Ministry of Education reduced to one summer intern mailing federal checks to deserving school districts?
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Alaska’s Ruling Class is okay with you pulling the plug on their premier money-laundering enterprise… we’ll honor your memory, my friend, maybe a toast on Michaelmas?
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Remember, Alaska’s education industry is firewalled from law enforcement and angry voters by carefully FUBAR’d grand-jury and election systems.
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Remember the legislator half of Alaska’s lobbyist-legislator team is outnumbered 7 to 1 by registered special interests, highly paid because they’re good at helping legislators preserve the orderly flow of money and power.
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If you want to dismantle DoE, wouldn’t you have to do so in a way that exposes the fraud, waste, and abuse, and keeps it from coming back like cancer?
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Not saying this can’t be done… maybe if we had the muscle of the Trump Organization to help, plus some idea of what to do when the empire strikes back, which they will when you threaten their racket?
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What about recruiting allies… Eaglexit sponsors seem ominously quiet, why? The very heroes you’d expect to be leading the charge, protecting their new borough from the vermin who made Alaska’s education industry what it is today, seem quiet. They know something we don’t?
Michael, I agree that the AKDoEd is out of control and too large. I agree that decentralization will produce the best outcome for our kids. Your article begs the question on many counts, and when you claim the other side commits logical fallacy you fail to explain how their argument fails the test of logic. Idea – A+, article – C-. I suggest you flesh out the ideas in this article more completely and report back to us. Thanks.
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