A new education funding package that the Alaska House passed with broad support includes a substantial funding boost for public schools, but its fate remains unclear.
The Anchorage School Board listens to ASD officials present the proposed budget during a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024.
The bill — which includes a historic $680 boost to the Base Student Allocation, the state’s per-student funding formula — still needs Senate approval before it would head to Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his consideration. Dunleavy can sign or veto the bill — or do neither, causing the bill to automatically become law.
By Friday afternoon, Dunleavy had not publicly indicated whether he supported the bill. His spokesman, Jeff Turner, wrote in an email Friday that “the bill still must pass the senate on a concurrence vote or go through the conference committee process. When the bill passes the legislature and is transmitted to office he will review it and make his decision.”
Without the state funding, the district’s budget cuts include: eliminating nearly 100 staff positions, including 36 full-time teachers as a result of an increase to the pupil-teacher ratio; increasing class sizes for all students in the fourth grade and older; axing the IGNITE program; increasing activity and rental fees; reducing summer school options; cutting back on school supply purchases; and spending down nearly all of the district’s rainy-day savings account.
Lessens called the funding boost “a Band-Aid” that could significantly help the district balance this year’s budget but was not enough to address future deficits and funding needs.
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