For Alaska legislators, it's try, try, try again on big public education funding effort

Yahoo

01-05-2025

Members of the Alaska House of Representatives look at the voting board for House Bill 57 on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
For the third time in two years, the Alaska Legislature has approved a bill that seeks to increase long-term state funding for the state's K-12 public schools.
On Wednesday, the state Senate voted 17-3 and the House voted 31-8 to approve House Bill 57, which would permanently increase the base student allocation, core of the state's per-student funding formula, by $700 per student, or $183 million across the state per year.
The bill also makes some policy changes for charter schools, creates a grant program to encourage schools to improve students' reading performance, and establishes an education task force to recommend further changes.
'I can't express how much gratitude that I know all of Alaska is sending with the message that we've sent,' said Rep. Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage, after the House passed the bill.
'Everybody wants something for children, and to see what we've seen, people working together … I think that was achieved and we found a little something for everyone.'
Wednesday's votes send the bill to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who vetoed two previous bills that attempted to increase the BSA.
The governor did not have an immediate comment on the Legislature's action. Dunleavy, on a trip to Washington, D.C., was unavailable for questions by phone, a spokesperson said.
While the Legislature failed to override the governor's two previous vetoes, the result of a third override could be different, legislators said.
'It's one of the most sweeping sets of policy reforms for education, I think, in state history,' said Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage and the original author of HB 57. 'And I think that's why you see such unity between the chambers and from every caucus. And that kind of unity is unprecedented.'
Since the start of April, the governor has urged the Legislature to include policy changes for charter schools, an open enrollment policy between schools and districts, an extra funding boost for homeschooled students, and grants for school districts whose students meet reading standards.
In talks over the weekend, the Republican minority caucuses in both House and Senate negotiated some of those provisions into HB 57. That was enough to sway some Republicans who voted against prior school funding measures, such as the recently vetoed House Bill 69.
'That's the process; you do the best that you can, and this is a much better bill than HB 69,' said House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage. She voted against House Bill 69, but in favor of HB 57.
'Vetoing HB 69 set the stage for being listened to by the majority. When we stuck together on that veto, we were basically sending a message that there were other things that needed to happen,' Costello said.
'While nobody is perfectly fine with the outcome of this bill, it makes it a step in the right direction, and we couldn't have gotten there if we hadn't held firm on that.'
In an unusual move, the governor's education commissioner sent a letter to school district superintendents on Monday, asking them to lobby the Legislature in favor of the governor's proposals.
Within the letter, she said that if the Legislature failed to meet the governor's demands, he could end up vetoing money used to pay for the updated formula.
In the end, some of the governor's requests were included, but others — including an extra funding boost for homeschooled students — were not.
Last year, lawmakers approved $174 million in one-time bonus funding on top of the BSA, so the formula change would not significantly increase year-over-year funding. Instead, the change's main advantage is that it allows school districts to plan ahead when budgeting, instead of waiting to see what the Legislature approves each year.
'Having the stability of the funding in the formula is critically important,' Fields said.
Without the change, school districts have to act as if there will be no funding bonus, a possibility until the state budget is finalized. That means warning teachers of possible layoffs, then rehiring them when money is approved.
'Having (the BSA increase) in policy avoids this destructive policy of pink slips and replacement,' Fields said.
At the start of the year, school districts said they needed a BSA increase of more than $1,800 to keep up with inflation since 2011. The final version of HB 57 is a little over a third of that figure, and some lawmakers called it a good first step.
'Fairbanks schools are suffering right now. Our schools have been starving for well over a decade. It's absolutely critical that we invest right now. This funding is stabilizing our school district and districts across the state, and it was a no-brainer,' said Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks.
But not everyone was pleased with the final result — of the Legislature's 60 members, 11 Republicans voted against the bill, and one, Rep. David Nelson, R-Anchorage, was excused absent.
Rep. Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, said she was unhappy with the final versions of policy proposals inserted into the bill. The reading grants won't become effective unless a bill updating corporate taxes becomes law. Open-enrollment provisions, which would allow students to transfer between schools and districts, were referred to a task force and not included in the bill.
'I just felt like the policy positions that were taken in the bill were not strong policy positions,' she said.
Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, also voted against the bill.
'I don't think it's enough. I think we need to focus on our kids,' he said.
Electoral factors may have been in play for Wednesday's vote.
In a column published by the conservative website Must Read Alaska, Bob Griffin of the Alaska Policy Forum opined that if the legislative session were to end without an education bill, the 'outcome wouldn't just harm our kids, it would also complicate Republican messaging in the next election, particularly with swing voters drawn to simplistic narratives.'
Before Wednesday's House vote, the Alaska Senate needed to fix errors revealed after it approved HB 57 on Monday.
There were two errors, lawmakers said. One involved the use of 'shall' instead of 'may' in a funding clause, raising concerns that it could run afoul of the Alaska Constitution's prohibition on budget accounts for particular programs.
The second involved a mistake on the effective date of a program that distributes grants to schools whose students reach certain benchmarks for reading skills. Those grants would begin with the 2026-2027 school year, not in January, halfway through the 2025-2026 school year.
The Senate had voted 19-1 in favor of HB 57, but its vote on Wednesday was 17-3.
The change was largely due to the way the new reading grant program is linked to passage of Senate Bill 113, a bill that updates corporate tax law pertaining to internet sales.
That change is expected to raise as much as $65 million per year, and proceeds would be directed toward the reading grant program.
If there's more than enough money to fund that program, the extra cash would be available for career and technical education programs in high schools.
'That's going to be huge, I think,' said Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka.
Amid a state budget crunch, education 'is the only area in the state where we're increasing spending,' he said.
But some senators noted that if SB 113 doesn't become law, the reading grants won't just be defunded — they'll be eliminated entirely.
'We are conditioning not only the funding of the reading grants … but the existence of the reading grants on another bill or policy,' said Sen. Robert Myers, R-North Pole.
For that reason, he said, he was unable to vote for the bill.
'I do find it a little odd that we guarantee a ride to school, but we don't have that guarantee that we're going to incentivize the growth of reading,' he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, voted in favor of the bill on Monday but changed his vote on Wednesday, saying he wasn't aware that the reading grants were contingent on the revenue bill.
'I'm kind of on a hope and a prayer that those things happen. … That makes it problematic for me,' he said.
Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, also voted in favor of the bill on Monday and against it on Wednesday for the same reason.
After Wednesday afternoon's final vote, a House majority spokesperson said he expects HB 57 to be transmitted to Dunleavy on Thursday.
When the bill is sent, the governor will have until May 17 to sign the bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.
If he vetoes it, the Alaska Constitution calls for the Legislature to meet 'immediately' for a vote to override or sustain the governor's decision. Forty of 60 legislators, meeting in joint session, would have to vote for the bill in order to override a veto.
Legislators have not overridden a veto since 2009.
Alaska Beacon reporter Corinne Smith contributed to this article from Juneau.
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