Alaska superintendents are welcoming a school funding increase approved by the Legislature this session that they say is desperately needed, while urging Gov. Mike Dunleavy to keep that funding boost intact.
After almost a decade of flat state funding, lawmakers on Tuesday voted to override Dunleavy’s veto of House Bill 57, which saw the comprehensive education package become law. Legislators said the vote was “historic,” resulting in a 12% boost to school formula funding.
Now, Alaska’s 53 school districts are hoping to share in an additional $184 million per year from an increase to the Base Student Allocation — the state’s per-student funding formula — and a boost in student transportation funding.
At the same time, they stress that it is not sufficient after years of high inflation and rising costs.
The superintendent of Mat-Su schools said the increase in HB 57 still amounts to a reduction after years of flat funding, and that districts have faced “death by a thousand cuts.” Kenai school administrators are planning on cutting dozens of positions, even with the funding boost approved by lawmakers. School administrators in a Western Alaska district said it would be a “disastrous situation” if school funding is further cut.
Still, school administrators say the $700 BSA increase is critical, particularly because it is intended to be predictable, stable and reliable each year.
Additionally, if Dunleavy vetoes school funding from the budget, superintendents warn that deeper and damaging cuts will be inevitable.
The successful override vote was the latest chapter in a yearslong, tortuous effort by lawmakers and education advocates to significantly increase state school funding.
Lisa Parady, executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, said superintendents are feeling “gratitude” to the Legislature.
“I know our members across the state are breathing a collective, baby sigh of relief that it passed,” she said about HB 57. “Because they’re in such need of that kind of stability.”
The BSA was established in 1999 as a core component of the state’s annual public school funding appropriation. Since then, school districts have received school funding each year following the formula set out in state statute.
At a May 19 media conference, Dunleavy said he would be prepared to use his line-item veto power to reduce school funding in the budget. Such a veto would likely come in June as districts try to finalize their own spending plans for the school year ahead.
Legislators passed a budget this session with a projected $57 million surplus. However, Dunleavy said that a funding veto could be needed as Alaska’s fiscal situation has worsened due largely to diminished oil revenue. He said school administrators should be “prudent” and prepare for “a worst-case scenario.”
“Because if that doesn’t happen, then you have money that you can carry over and save,” the governor said.
Legislative leaders have said they are not planning to hold a special session this year. That means a potential budget veto override vote would likely be held in January when the Legislature reconvenes its next regular session.
‘Going backwards’
In the Mat-Su, where Dunleavy lives and previously served as school board president, school administrators are welcoming the funding in HB 57. But they emphasize that it is not enough.
Earlier in the year, the nonpartisan Legislative Finance Division estimated a BSA increase over $1,800 per year would be needed to match the formula to inflation since 2011.
In an interview the day after the veto override, Mat-Su Superintendent Randy Trani was careful to emphasize that the funding increase approved this year was not really an increase.
“When you account for all the costs, we’re going backwards under House Bill 57,” he said.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, the second-largest in the state, has made deep reductions this year, cutting the equivalent of 157 full-time positions. Trani stressed that no jobs were lost, but he said spending reductions were achieved by cuts in discretionary spending, displacements and attrition.
Some valuable programs are set to be scaled back, he added.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Trani said, the district established the 4Cs program, which helps high school students who are falling behind to ensure they graduate. That program has helped Mat-Su schools achieve their highest graduation rates in 25 years, Trani said.
Even with the $700 BSA boost, the district can no longer afford to provide that program for all students in the Mat-Su, so it will become optional, he said. Trani added that it was “unfortunate” it is set to be cut back.
HB 57 came with a suite of policy changes, including limits on cellphones in schools and provisions intended to expand charter schools.
The package also funds career and technical education and grants for reading initiatives. But they would only be paid if a measure becomes law this year that would raise state revenue by applying corporate income tax on out-of-state businesses that operate online.
Dunleavy has been opposed to tying reading initiatives to a revenue-raising bill. He has suggested he would veto that measure, too.
Trani said if that occurs, Mat-Su schools would miss out on roughly $3 million in funding. More cuts would be likely, he said.
The planned cuts in the Mat-Su assume the district receives its total funding following the BSA formula. Like superintendents across Alaska, Trani encouraged Dunleavy not to veto school funding from the budget.
“Any further reduction in what House Bill 57 appropriates is going to result in more cuts in Mat-Su, and I’m sure everywhere else in the entire state,” he said.
Preventing ‘a fire sale’
It‘s a similar story for Alaska’s other big four urban districts — in Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula and Juneau. Facing uncertainty about state funding, school administrators tentatively balanced their budgets by planning for a funding boost of a certain size. They are now waiting to see what they get.
Last year, districts received $174 million in additional one-time school funding, which administrators said had limited utility due to its temporary nature. That funding increase was equivalent to a $680 BSA boost.
Anchorage school leaders assumed they would receive a $560 BSA increase this year, which totals almost $40 million. The school board recently reversed cuts to gifted and talented programs, middle school sports and dozens of educator positions based on that higher funding figure.
Clayton Holland, superintendent of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, said the school board had assumed status quo funding. With the $700 BSA boost, 116 positions are still set to be cut at the district, he said.
The funding in HB 57 is “preventing us from basically having a fire sale on everything,” he said.
In Fairbanks, the district also based its budget on a $680 BSA increase. That resulted in $16 million in cuts, three schools being closed, the elimination of over 165 positions, and an increase in class sizes, district officials said.
Luke Meinert, superintendent of Fairbanks schools, said “extraordinarily difficult decisions” have been made this year. If Dunleavy vetoes the $700 BSA increase, the district would need to make deeper cuts, he said.
“These would further impact our ability to provide the high-quality education that our students deserve and that our community expects,” he added.
In Juneau, HB 57 equates to a $5.4 million increase in school funding. That funding has been earmarked to restore positions and programs, such as expanded summer school options.
Juneau Superintendent Frank Hauser thanked legislators for the first “meaningful” BSA increase in more than a decade.
“While 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,” he said in a prepared statement.
‘Disastrous situation’
Outside of Alaska’s urban centers, the funding in HB 57 has gotten a mixed reception.
Cyndy Mika, superintendent of Kodiak schools, said it would be a “game-changer” and give the district some “breathing room.” She said roughly half of the $3.4 million in additional funding would go to salary increases for Kodiak educators.
Like districts across Alaska, Kodiak schools have made cuts. In the past three years, Mika said the district had eliminated 72 positions. She emphasized that the funding increase approved this year “is not going to save us. It‘s only going to keep us afloat for a year.”
If Dunleavy vetoes the entire $3.4 million appropriation for Kodiak, Mika said the district would need to cut roughly $10 million from the budget next year, which she said would be an “almost impossible feat.”
“We’re cutting every year. It‘s just not been enough to get us out of the hole,” she added.
In Tok, it‘s a similar story. Patrick Mayer, superintendent of Alaska Gateway School District, said it has become the “new norm” to make cuts each year. The district does not have a PE teacher, an art teacher or a music teacher, he said.
“That really negatively impacts the ability to offer diverse, rich course offerings to students,” he said.
Mayer said a $700 BSA boost would equate to around $1 million in additional revenue each year for the district. He said that would not allow “for any major new investments,” but it “does enable us to maintain current staffing levels and programs.”
In Akiachak, a remote Yup’ik village on the Kuskokwim River, sits the head office of Yupiit School District. The district‘s student population is 99% Alaska Native.
Superintendent Scott Ballard described the stark outlook he is facing. Without a $700 BSA boost, the district would be in “a disastrous situation,” he said — layoffs would be inevitable and school facilities would be less safe for students. Some of the district‘s three schools use diesel-generated power year-round, 24 hours a day.
“If we have an emergency and we can’t keep the lights on, or if the water system fails, like it has in the past, we will not have any extra money to make those kind of repairs,” Ballard said.
However, he said with the funding increase in HB 57, the district still cannot afford a fire alarm system for a school in Akiak, which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
When announcing his veto decision, Dunleavy emphasized that Alaska’s test scores rank in the bottom of the nation. He said that he could not support the Legislature’s education package because “there is no evidence that a permanent increase in the Base Student Allocation will improve educational outcomes.”
Ballard said that is “a false argument” and that school districts have been “starved.”
It is a “pretty ridiculous” idea “that you’re going to keep holding schools responsible for declining academic performance when you’re not funding them adequately,” he said.