By PEDRO GONZALEZ
It didn’t take long for Alaska superintendents to go from celebrating a proposed school funding increase to insisting that more would still not be enough.
On May 19, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a former superintendent and school board president himself, vetoed House Bill 57, which would, among other things, raise base student allocation by $700 per head. Most of his reservations stemmed from the ways in which the money would be spent and how it would manifest.
In a column, Dunleavy called out what he called the “education cabal,” an “entrenched coalition of special interests, lobbyists and status quo defenders,” for caring more about dollar signs than student outcomes.
But the Alaska Legislature had other plans. Following what was Dunleavy’s third veto of an education bill in two years, it overrode him, eliciting cheers from Clayton Holland, a school official.
“All of our communities are really wanting public education funding to be increased and to support their communities,” he told YourAlaskaLink. “And so it is wonderful to have the legislature in the same space.”
In a statement, the Anchorage School District echoed Holland, but added a word of caution.
“We applaud the Legislature’s override of the Governor’s veto,” the district said. “But even as we celebrate that progress, uncertainty still remains.”
Suddenly, the idea of an additional $184 billion per year increase to the base student allocation seemed a lot smaller. Superintendents warned that it would quickly prove insufficient against the backdrop of rising inflation and costs.
Even HB 57 wouldn’t save positions that are on the chopping block in the Kenai Peninsula. Indeed, some superintendents characterized the funding increase as a step backward.
In a prepared statement, Juneau Superintendent Frank Hauser said that although “the $700 increase does not fully keep pace with inflation or the rising costs of delivering quality public education across our vast and diverse state, it represents the most substantial investment in our students and schools in many years and introduces new, bipartisan-supported policies.”
Hauser, in other words, means that the schools need more, much more.
Apart from disagreements over policy items, Dunleavy’s central point of opposition against HB 57 has been that more funding has not translated into better outcomes. The governor has reiterated that he does not oppose allocating more dollars for education but rather wants to ensure that the state is “investing strategically, with every dollar tied to outcomes” as Alaska faces a variety of economic and demographic headwinds, including declining oil revenues and demographic stagnation. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, too.
Alaska schools have become so hard up for teachers that they are turning to the Philippines, where they are going to find fresh recruits. It’s an expensive and complex process that involves immigration lawyers and visa fees. It has naturally drawn a lot of criticism. School districts say that this route allows them to cut out the agencies that serve as the middlemen and charge as much as $27,000 per teacher.
But what happens to those who cannot afford or do not want to hire foreign teachers but are also unable to attract domestic ones? The Alaska Council of School Administrators has relied on grant funding from the US Department of Education to enhance recruitment and retention efforts. It’s a desperate measure with uncertain fruit.
The irony of the override, then, is that it more or less leaves the debate more or less where it started amid a darkening picture for education in Alaska.
“……..the idea of an additional $184 billion per year increase to the base student allocation seemed a lot smaller………”
!!! I bet Ukraine could work wonders with $184 billion!
Just ask Zelensky; I hear he’s even writing a “how to guide” (well it’s being ghost-written, anyway) titled, “You Too Can Be So Damn Rich!” It’s going to be published by the U.N.
Blatantly clear it’s ALL about the money. Unions and School Board are the reason the can’t keep teachers Demorats are SO dumb
HB 57, if funded, brings spending for next year to about the same level as this year. In that sense (reality) it is not a huge increase, but status quo when you look at funding overall. It does bring the BSA in line with what we are spending now and that will make the conversation a bit more coherent, but current levels of funding have very large class sizes in our large districts, and difficulty recruiting staff everywhere.
For most years, the BSA was held flat and districts were “helped” by one time funding, and every year the folks that want to privatize education talked about “throwing more money” at a failing system, because districts needed more than the BSA. Folks in the public that aren’t following closely hear it and they’re sick of it, achieving a political goal for some.
It is a huge step forward. The “uncertainty” mentioned is because it sets the BSA but funding can still be vetoed by the Governor. Next year we’re set for a more rational discussion.
Your board colleagues took away a charter school that you deemed troubled? You have inserted DEI and LGBTQ+ into the curriculums and consider your employees input to be more valid than a parent or guardians for purpose of sex counselling (eventually changing pronouns at school). You cite a ‘study’ for changing the start times for kids of different school levels (of which the contrary is being promoted, federally) You encourage a ‘sanctuary school’. The states that have improved their testing of reading and math are explicitly ‘voucher’ changed policy. Please reply and explain yourself.
Andy. you just keep working on those school district contracts, pad ’em up over a million so your mob can “award” them to your union buddies.
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Be grateful, Andy, that no law fits the crime you and your mob have committed against generations of children and taxpayers by making Anchorage School District one of America’s worst-performing and most expensive.
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Be careful Andy: (a) people in your mob might figure out how the False Claims Act works and file qui tam lawsuits, (b) voters might figure out how to regain control of their election system and replace current board members with people who give a damn, in a good way, about children and taxpayers.
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Meanwhile, Andy, can you just not talk about money?
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Why not?
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Your mob has no clue where all the money goes. Best guess is a forensic audit of district finances and management practices means a “rational discussion” with the federal grand jury.
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Teachers’ union has your cojones in a lockbox, you’ll give ’em what they want or else, no?
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Lobbyist-legislator team gives your mob all the money you want —and doesn’t care what you do with it—. Do we need to repeat that last part?
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Nobody knows, or is saying, how many illegal aliens your mob stuffed in the school system so the racket can get all the money to which indigent children are entitled.
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School superintendent’s too busy with DEI to “allow” ICE to find out?
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So do us a solid, Andy, keep your condescending “rational discussion” to yourself.
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Only “rational discussion” taxpayer-parents’ll ever have will be with your replacements who we’ll have to borrow from Mississippi or someplace like it to fix the crap your mob created.
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Want more money, Andy, don’t B/S taxpayers, just call Jim Anderson, your $65K per year lobbyist, that’s his job, getting money for your racket, no?
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Bottom line is the only “rational” thing we want to hear from you, Andy, and your school-board club is: “I resign.”
Homeschooling is the best answer for positive outcome and parental control.
Yes Jo you are 100% right!
Government can’t keep the potholes filled or drug addled miscreants off the streets.
Who here really thinks the State can educate a child with all the emphasis on DEI, fake history, fake science, stupid math, trans mania, and litter boxes in the restroom for the furries?!?
Black fatigue.
Native fatigue.
Add teachers union fatigue to the list now.
It’s Never enough for the school district, teachers, union, no matter how much they get. They always want and demand more, more, more. As soon as they get funding, they immediately say they need more, it’s not enough- every year the same thing as they exploit the students and their parents to pressure the legislature to give them more. They think they should get ALL the money and then some. All of the PFD, (who cares about any of
you-we want the money), then more taxes, AIDEA, look at any gov’t agency or program, Suck the money out of those too. When are people who can vote actually going to take their kids out, home school them, vote the greedy money grubbing education dept , school board, superintendent, legislators out? Can’t always expect someine else to do it Not voting doesn’t work, it just lets them put in all the votes to win.
How many more parents would be.better able to provide for their childrens’ needs, food, clothing, school supplies, etc., with less need for handout, government dependency bureaucratic programs if everyone were given the Full PFD, instead of sucking out all the money for the bureaucracy, employees, school district and unions who take it for themselves? People and the Alaskan economy were better off before the legislature was taking all the PFD money and spending it. Throw the bums out.