The US Department of Education sent letters to all school districts in America on Friday saying they must ditch their DEI and critical race theory programs or lose federal funding. DEI is “diversity, equity, inclusion,” a new way of discriminating.
That federal directive could mean that instead of Anchorage School Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt boosting the District DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) programs by his proposed 20%, that money could be used to support actual learning in classrooms, or the activities that he has cut from the proposed 2025-26 budget.
“Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education, wrote in the letter, adding that “overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions,” and is not acceptable in this administration. The letter notified districts that they have 14 days to comply.
On Page 87 of Bryantt’s 471-page proposed budget, he and School Board President Andy Holleman ask for $724,000 for the DEI program, which is described as “The Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement, formerly Equity and Compliance, coordinates ASD efforts to ensure equity in educational programs and employment for the benefit of all students and all employees. The EC office provides civil rights compliance guidance across ASD departments in an effort to remove barriers to educational and employment opportunities. The office also facilitates the Superintendent’s Multicultural Education Concerns Advisory Committee which is comprised of stakeholders from Anchorage’s diverse communities united by the goal of educating all students for success in life.”
Bryantt says the district has a $100 million deficit that can only be made up by the Legislature dramatically increasing the level of per-student funding, called the base student allocation.
School Board President Andy Holleman said the school district faces a stark reality and requires the Legislature to also fund the lavish retirement plan known as defined benefits, or pensions, rather than the current defined-contribution plan.
“The long-standing failure to adjust education funding to meet the actual costs of operating our schools has led us to this point. While we remain committed to producing a balanced budget, we must also prioritize long-term investments in our students, educators, and school communities. Our efforts go beyond simply closing a budget gap—we are focused on securing a stable and sustainable future for public education in Alaska. To that end, ASD is advocating for key legislative priorities, including a permanent increase in the BSA, investments in the recruitment and retention of high-quality educators, and the establishment of a competitive retirement plan. Addressing the statewide teacher shortage is not just an ASD challenge—it is a collective responsibility that demands immediate attention,” he wrote on behalf of the board in his letter introducing the budget.
The proposed Anchorage budget cuts out many after school activities, including all middle school sports programs, swimming, gymnastics, and hockey.
Read the proposed budget at this link.
Instead of student programs, the Anchorage proposed budget seeks to boost the DEI program from $603,821 to $724,122. This could put millions of federal dollars at risk.
Under the Biden Administration, the state was threatened with a withholding of funds by the Department of Education because the state didn’t meet the Biden test for “equity” in distribution of funds, even though the funds (which were Covid-era dollars) were distributed to districts based on Alaska’s long-used and legally tested formula.
The Biden Administration said then it would withhold $17.4 million from the state and put it on a “high-risk grantee” list unless the state distributed the funds according to the Biden equity formula, which would have violated state law.
In the end, the Biden Administration backed down.
This new order from the Department of Education is not just a complete reversal of former policies. It is in response to a presidential executive order to end all DEI programs, which supporters say help underrepresented groups, while critics say it does not align with American merit-based values.
Only a small amount of the district’s budget comes directly from the federal government. In the 2024-25 budget, the Anchorage School District received 1.57% of its general fund revenue from the federal government directly.
Most of the other federal funding is funneled through the State Department of Education and Early Development and is distributed by the Legislature during annual budgets. That makes up to 14% of the budget. Local taxation on property owners pays the lion’s share of the cost of running local schools.
The proposed Anchorage School District budget takes the overall operating budget up from $638 million to $651 million, while student head count has dropped more than 1% year over year and is expected to continue falling, as people start pulling their children out of the failing district, where only 32% of third graders are able to read at grade level.
