Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins broke with Republicans and voted with Democrats against the confirmation of Kash Patel to head up the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
However, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky voted in favor of Patel, who passed confirmation on a vote of 51-49 in the Senate.
Murkowski had not indicated how she would vote, and so her decision came somewhat as a surprise. To date, Murkowski has only voted against two of President Trump’s nominees: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Patel.
She wrote on X: “I will oppose Kash Patel’s confirmation to serve as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI’s mission is “to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.” Mr. Patel and I agree the bureau has crept past that mission, become an increasingly political agency, and eroded the public’s trust. We have had multiple frank and open discussions about how best to restore that trust. I agree with Mr. Patel that it begins by getting agents out in the field, doing what they signed up to do, rather than sitting behind an administrative desk. My reservations with Mr. Patel stem from his own prior political activities and how they may influence his leadership. The FBI must be trusted as the federal agency that roots out crime and corruption, not focused on settling political scores. I have been disappointed that when he had the opportunity to push back on the administration’s decision to force the FBI to provide a list of agents involved in the January 6 investigations and prosecutions, he failed to do so. If confirmed, I wish a successful tenure at the helm of this agency, and will endeavor to work with him to help address issues in Alaska, improve Tribal law enforcement across the country, and make needed changes within the FBI. I truly hope that he proves me wrong about the reservations I have of him today.”
Across the city of Sitka, U.S. flags were upside down on flag poles on Wednesday. Flags were flown in the “distress” position in front of Sitka City Hall, the Forest Service and Park Service offices, as well as at the airport.
It didn’t appear to be an officially sanctioned government activity, but was likely the work of a person or persons objecting to the government jobs being reduced by President Donald Trump through a series of executive orders.
Flying the flag upside down is recognized as a signal of distress when used in maritime situations. Choosing to fly the flag upside down as a form of political protest was something done by Democrats during the first Trump Administration and also by conservatives during the Biden Administration and in response to Trump being indicted in August, 2023.
So far, it appears eight federal jobs were cut in Sitka for things like trail work, tribal relations, and subsistence fish observation. It is being reported widely that across the Tongass National Forest, which covers most of Southeast Alaska, 90 positions were cut, and 120 Forest Service jobs may be eliminated statewide.
Since the 2001 Roadless Rule was enacted, no measurable timber harvesting has taken place in the Tongass, which has been turned into what is essentially a national park.
With Fairbanks Democrat Rep. Maxine Dibert in the hospital for a serious lung condition, Alaska’s House of Representatives has a fragile Democrat-led majority. That is a behind-the-scenes issue buzzing around the Capitol, and it became clear that in House Education Committee, there is no actual Democrat majority without her. The Democrats’ plans were being stymied due to one member missing.
Thus, on Wednesday, the Democrats took to the House floor to force their education funding bill out of the committee, where it was languishing.
House Bill 69 is one of the Democrats’ priorities, a massive increase to the formula funding for schools. It’s being pushed by unions, the National Education Association, and school districts. There is no accountability measure tied to the legislation to improve Alaska’s dismal school performance.
Rep. Mike Prax, a North Pole Republican broke with his fellow Republicans voted with the Democrats to force the bill out of House Education and into House Finance Committee.
He later explained it as a voting error. Although he asked for a reconsideration vote, the Democrats denied him the opportunity for a do-over.
HB 69 would increase the per-pupil funding by $1,000 in this fall, and another $400 per pupil for 2026 and again in 2027. The bill would tie the hands of future legislatures, and the funding source will almost certainly come out of the Permanent Fund dividend that Alaskans expect to get in October.
The cost of the bill in FY26 is expected to be $356 million, and by 2027 it would be more than $500 million, with no other funding source than Alaskans’ bank accounts.
It’s a hangout for the vagrants and downtown drug pushers. It’s the scene of stabbings, shootings, violent crime, and piles of human waste.
Now, the mayor and the Anchorage Assembly want voters in April to approve an $8.5 million bond measure, which property taxpayers will have to pay for, and the biggest part of the expenditure is to make Town Square Park a prettier drug hang out, with no plan to make it safer.
Proposition 3 on the April 1 ballot is no joke. It asks voters to approve:
“For the purpose of renovating and rehabilitating trails and parks, and making improvements at various parks and recreational facilities in the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Service Area, as provided in AO 2025‑10, shall Anchorage borrow money and issue up to $8,250,000 in principal amount of general obligation bonds and increase the municipal tax cap by an annual amount not to exceed $245,000 to pay for associated annual operations and maintenance costs?”
For this bond, it’s estimated to cost property owners $4 a year for an average home, plus an extra $2-plus-change per year to maintain and operate the park. The debt would be retired by real and personal property tax collected within the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Service Area, without cost to properties in Chugiak, Eagle River, Girdwood, and others outside the service area.
Voters in Anchorage have a history of approving such seemingly small increments year after year.
The bond has something for everyone but the biggest expenditure by far is Town Square Park, at $2.9 million.
Proposition 3 projects 2025
Whether making Town Square Park a prettier place for violent vagrants will improve downtown is a question voters will need to ask themselves. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says it will. Assembly members from downtown Chris Constant and Daniel Holland say it will make the open space more attractive for people to use.
Town Square Park was created in 1984 through a citizen led voter initiative, intended to be “an oasis from the urban environment of Alaska’s largest city.” It has evolved into a gathering place for only those who dare.
Proposition 3 will be before voters in the ballot packet that will be mailed in about one month. The election ends on April Fools Day.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski complained as many as 100 Alaska federal workers have been let go by the Trump Administration’s cost-cutting measures from the Department of Government Efficiency.
But she wasn’t specific and apparently did not know the number, but she did know some of the terminations “would do more harm than good.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan was more careful in his response to the reduction in the federal workforce, saying that the actual number is not yet known and he is looking into it.
“Regarding the reported federal position cuts in Alaska: Job losses are always difficult on families and communities, especially in a tight-knit state like ours. I am working diligently to gather more information on what federal positions in Alaska have been cut and how they impact local communities,” Sullivan wrote. “Many of us remember how communities were struggling when thousands of jobs in our resource sector were lost in Alaska and America in large part because of the relentless war waged by both the Obama and Biden administrations against the energy sector. This sector is the backbone of our state’s economy, supporting tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and small businesses that support working families. I am working relentlessly with the Trump administration to bring those jobs, and more private-sector opportunities, back to our state.”
For now, federal workers can always turn to the State of Alaska, which currently has 365 vacancies listed. Democrats in the House and Senate repeatedly say that because there is no defined benefits pension plan, Alaska can’t attract or keep state workers. But that may be a distant memory if Murkowski is right and there are 100 people looking for government jobs.
At the State of Alaska, there are jobs for accountants and correctional officers, and the Alaska Marine Highway System has a vacancy rate of about 24%.
Small Business Administration – number unconfirmed.
Transportation Department – up to 300 at the Federal Aviation Administration.
U.S. Department of Government Efficiency Service (formerly U.S. Digital Service) – number unconfirmed.
Veterans Affairs Department – 1,000.
Today President Trump reported he is firing all of the attorneys at the Department of Justice that were hired under the Biden Administration. That ought to generate a few lawsuits from the legal eagles that had been going after him on the public dime for the past four years.
The calls for boosting education funding by increasing Alaska’s Base Student Allocation, while mostly well-intentioned, frequently miss the point.
Proponents often frame their proposals for a higher BSA in terms of how the increase would affect Alaskans’ Permanent Fund Dividend. This is a false choice and leads to emotional and unproductive arguments that do not address the root of the issue.
A recent column by Larry Persily does just that by implying that the only reason to question a proposed massive annual increase in the school funding formula is because it might lower your Permanent Fund Dividend.
Persily also compares the historical increase in the BSA (2%) to inflation over the last 10 years (32%). However, he entirely ignores annual funding increases that have occurred periodically throughout the same period. Actual Alaska education funding during that time period increased 14%, resulting in the seventh highest per-pupil expenditure in the country in 2024.
Most Alaskans I know don’t object to adequate state funding for schools. But definitions of “adequate” vary widely, especially when accountability is rarely required.
This year, the Legislature will consider an education funding bill, HB 69, which seeks to permanently increase the Base Student Allocation. The bill would boost the BSA by $1,808 (a 30% increase over the current $5,960) plus projected inflation.
Phasing in the higher BSA over the next three years results in total education funding of about $1.8 billion by year 3 – which would add over $500 million annually for schools – a 40% increase.
The question not answered is how will our K-12 student achievement benefit as a result?
Alaska is near the top of the nation in terms of education expenditures per student and at the absolute bottom in student achievement. No matter how much money Alaska pumps into education, it seems, student test scores continue to drop.
While it’s true that Alaska school funding hasn’t kept pace with inflation, that has been exacerbated by the continuing drop in student population and some school districts’ reluctance to consolidate schools when necessary. There has also been a significant migration of students from traditional school buildings to correspondence learning and home schooling. Buildings generate the same fixed costs regardless of how many students are in them.
There is no assurance that pouring money into schools will result in better student outcomes. In some states, just the opposite has happened. In Oregon and Washington, for example, per-pupil spending increased 80%-110% since 2013, but their NAEP scores declined almost every year, and now are 10-15 points below where they were 10 years ago.
In contrast, Mississippi, with the highest poverty rate in the US, and ranked 44th in the US in per student spending on K-12 education, leads the nation in 4th grade reading scores for low-income students. Upper/middle-income Mississippi 4th graders were ranked 2nd in the nation for reading scores.
Mississippi demonstrates that the amount of money spent isn’t most important; it’s how it’s spent. It isn’t how many teachers you have; it’s what you teach. It isn’t the number of administrators that counts; it’s holding administrators accountable.
Deterioration of Alaska’s test scores has been going on for years, before funding issues and long before Covid impacted student learning. Those are simply excuses for an education system that promotes students regardless of their math and reading comprehension.
Commonsense reforms opposed by the education establishment should at least be discussed as a precondition of increased funding.
Consolidating underutilized schools, directing dollars to the classroom instead of administrators and non-academic curricula, teacher retention bonuses, cell-phone free schools, increased emphasis on reading and math achievement, open enrollment, and expanding charter schools are among the various ideas being discussed.
It is past time to stop blaming Alaska’s educational woes solely on lack of funding and begin to change the way education is funded and delivered. Otherwise, expect more of the same – no improvement and families continuing to flee the public system.
After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular opinion page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations.
Sen. Shelley Hughes is hosting a food security workshop on Saturday, Feb. 22, from 9 a.m. to noon at Palmer Jr. Middle School. In response to the Food Strategy Task Force’s call to improve local food security, the workshop will promote agricultural and food independence at both the household and community levels. Anyone interested in growing, raising, harvesting, or preserving food is encouraged to attend at no cost.
The event will include networking opportunities, local experts, the Mat-Su Farm Bureau, and students from the Future Farmers of America. Presentations and table discussions include a wide range of topics including livestock rearing, gardening, hunting, fishing, food processing, food preservation, beekeeping, hobby to commercial farming, and more.
Sen. Hughes invites everyone to attend.
“This is an exciting event and opportunity for Alaskans of all stripes. Whether you’ve always wanted your own fresh eggs, thought raising goats might suit your fancy, are hungry for more knowledge about best gardening practices, or are ready to maximize productivity despite your small space, this event will be the perfect venue for you to network with friendly and helpful neighbors-in-the-know,” she said.
Senator Hughes is chairwoman of the Food Strategy Task Force, directed in statute to develop and implement strategies to foster local food security
Hughes said she hopes other communities in Alaska will replicate this low-budget event, bringing residents together with local experts to spark interest and action in boosting greater food independence in their region of the state.
At the state capital, corrupt insiders in the Deep Swamp are actively sabotaging the future of Alaska’s children.
These special interest cronies, who have no genuine concern for our youth’s education and never have, blatantly lie about their commitment to educating our children while shamelessly intending on increasing and redirecting state funds through proposed legislation to feed their own self-serving agendas and enrich the Deep State.
This display of legislative self-indulgence, another example of the putrid self-licking s___-flavored ice cream cone, has been served to the public by Independent Representative Rebecca Himschoot, a former teacher and frontwoman for the Alaska public education union, and sponsors, Representatives Maxine Dibert, Andy Josephson, Ky Holland, Alyse Galvin, Genevieve Mina, Zack Fields, Ashley Carrick, Andi Story, Sara Hannan, Calvin Schrage, and Ted Eischeid.
House Bill 69 is a two-page opus aimed at inflating the Base Student Allocation as if swelling a balloon that will soon deflate under its own weight is the answer to Alaska’s education tragedy.
The bill proposed to amend AS 14.17.470 which is the base student allocation (BSA). It is now one simple sentence which reads, “The base student allocation is $5,960.”
The BSA is a foundational component of Alaska’s public school funding formula in an already extremely convoluted and deceptive process designed by the public education union to wean every dollar out of the feds, state and taxpayers while providing no promise of educational improvement, performance or results for Alaska’s future, our children.
The HB 69 sponsor’s statement contends that Alaska’s constitutional duty to provide free public education extends to every child and young adult, yet the Constitution only mandates that the legislature “establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children.”
The sponsors’ call for universal free education is a calculated deception—a lie designed to conceal their own graft. The Constitution only requires that we provide basic educational access for children, leaving further opportunities to legislative discretion.
By exploiting this narrow mandate, the cronies behind HB 69—and ultimately the Democrat-RINO controlled state legislature—have derailed education progress in our state. The blame belongs squarely on their failed policies and self-serving agendas.
So how do Rep. Himschoot and the gang of 11 justify pushing for universal free education when the very text of the Constitution falls far short of that promise? They don’t. They provide emotional hyperbole with hopes that they can get away with this. They are simply fronting for the public education union and its corrupt special interests, using this inflated promise as a smokescreen to enrich their campaign coffers at our children’s expense.
It is utterly outrageous that these 12 legislators have pocketed over $1 million in 2024 campaign contributions—nearly 25% of which come directly from unions and other special interest groups. And that’s not even counting the additional special interest individual contributions that only further promote these corrupt, self-serving agendas.
The sponsors’ lie is especially problematic given the grim realities: Alaska consistently ranks among the lowest in educational performance nationwide, and it bears the burden of the one of the highest cost per student. Is this sinking in yet?
The sponsor statement continues “Unfortunately, years of flat funding and rising inflation have degraded Alaska’s public education system, resulting in larger class sizes, closed schools, and fewer educational opportunities for children and families.”
Flat funding and rising inflation are not to blame here. The real culprit is the top-down state education policies that force local districts into a cycle of bureaucratic incompetence and mismanagement, breeding an ideology that not only tolerates but actively promotes waste. These misguided state mandates have cascaded down, undermining the quality of education for our children.
In response, House Bill 69 proposes a targeted fix by “inflation proofing” education funding. It aims to raise the Base Student Allocation by $1,808 per student—spread over three years.
If you review the bill, you will notice there are no fiscal notes as of this date. Why? Because the bill is an exercise in mathematical gymnastics designed by the public education union to mislead the public and enrich special interests.
Based on the language of HB 69, I estimate a fiscal note for this bill over a 10-year period adds a total cumulative additional cost of about $3.9 billion to education funding.
This fiscal note reflects the additional state funding required to implement the amendments to AS 14.17.470 under HB, accounting for both the specified fixed increases and the ongoing impact of a 3% annual inflation adjustment. The note assumes a constant student population of 130,000 and does not factor in potential enrollment changes or other economic fluctuations over the period.
While HB 69 attempts to address the fake funding shortfalls—by increasing the BSA and linking it to inflation—the underlying debate is far from resolved. The sponsor’s broad constitutional claim and urgent funding rhetoric mask a more limited mandate: the Constitution guarantees a public school system for children, not an all-encompassing guarantee for every young adult.
Even with these funding increases, the systemic issues—reflected in poor performance outcomes and spiraling per-student costs—remain deeply entrenched. Ultimately, it raises critical questions about whether simply pumping more money into a flawed system can genuinely improve educational outcomes in a state already burdened by inefficiency and high costs.
Thomas Sowell writes in “Charter Schools and Their Enemies”:
“Of course it takes money to run a school. But the great emphasis on money differences as an explanation—or excuse—for differences in educational outcomes ignores the plain fact that the most fundamental things are among the least expensive to teach. Mathematics has been taught for centuries, requiring nothing more expensive than a book, pencil and paper for students, and chalk and a blackboard for teachers. Many “innovative” and “exciting” new gimmicks on tangential projects in schools are likely to be far more expensive. Nevertheless, it remains a common defense of substandard educational outcomes in the traditional unionized public schools to claim that money is the reason—that the schools have ‘inadequate funding’”
The last sentence of their sponsor statement, “Increasing Alaska’s Base Student Allocation and indexing it to inflation will ensure Alaska’s public schools have the resources needed to educate children, so they have the knowledge and skills to succeed in life.”.
This last sentence is nothing short of a tragic betrayal of public trust. It deceptively promises that simply providing more resources will miraculously endow our children with the skills needed for success, all while avoiding the hard truth that increasing the Base Student Allocation does not translate to improved educational performance. By presenting proper funding as a magic solution, it misleads the public into believing that more money alone will fix our broken system, thereby obscuring the critical need for genuine reforms and effective management.
If they were honest, they would instead be proposing legislation which puts education accountability at the district level requiring each district to maintain a superlative level of educational performance and outcome without the chains of power and control exercised by the state bureaucracy and its princelings, bought and paid-for politicians and their special interests.
Between 2021 and 2024, the Alaska Black Caucus went from penniless to getting more than $1.3 million in grants from the Anchorage Assembly. These were noncompetitive grants that no other group had the opportunity to participate in.
The biggest grant came from federal Covid funds, for $1, 023,648 for outreach to the black community and convince people to take the Covid vaccine. The Alaska Black Caucus didn’t have to compete for the grants. They were sole-source contracts.
The non-compete grants continued in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Earlier, the Assembly granted the group over $400,000 to buy a building for its activities.
There were also competitive grants that the Alaska Black Caucus has won over those years, including American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funds:
Alaska Black Caucus competitive grants
The appropriations have no meaningful deliverables. The Alaska Black Caucus did create a website that contains various news items. In January, the site posted an informational article titled, “Billions of Federal Dollars Come Into Alaska – How does Black Owned Businesses get a piece of the pie?”
In 2021 the Assembly gave the group a piece of the taxpayer’s pie to buy a building and establish “The Equity Center,” which houses the Alaska Black Caucus and serves as a quasi-political headquarters. You can read about it at the group’s newsletter. The Equity Center is the kind of place that could be denied federal grants in 2025, due to the Trump Administration’s stated ban on funding discrimination.
Alaska Black Caucus, which is arguably a surrogate group for the Democrat Party, had disappeared for years, but when the federal money started flowing, the group popped back up and outperformed during the Biden Covid years. The lion’s share of the funding comes from federal taxpayers and future taxpayers who will owe these funds that the US government borrowed from bonds and took through taxes. Celeste Hodge Growden, the organization’s CEO, makes $72,500.
It appears the organization will require ongoing federal and municipal support to stay viable, however. Life support for the Alaska Black Caucus will come this year from the Anchorage Mayor’s Community Grants program; the application period for this year’s money opened Feb. 11 and closes on March 10. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance will be giving out $315,000 in taxpayer money to organizations that support her policy priorities.
Federal dollars may be harder to get, however, since the organization is discriminatory by nature, filling the “diversity, equity, inclusion” programming that is now eliminated from federal spending.
