The Alaska Legislature returned to session on Tuesday, and education was at the forefront of pretty much everyone’s mind except for the Dunleavy-aligned Republican House Majority that voted down an attempt to restore education dollars.
On a 20-20 vote, the House rejected a motion from the bipartisan House Minority to hold a joint session with the Senate to override GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of $87 million in K-12 funding from last year’s budget. Under the Alaska Constitution, the Legislature has five days after returning to session to consider an override of vetoes.
“Education funding has not been meaningfully addressed in a sustainable and predictable way for more than a decade,” said House Minority Leader Calvin Shrage, I-Anchorage, when making the pitch on the House floor. “We’re at a tipping point. School districts across the state are looking at laying off staff. They’re looking at major issues with retaining the staff that they do have. A morale crisis.”
At their news conference, members of the bipartisan Senate Majority said that education funding is at the top of their priority for the legislative session but stopped short of calling for a special session. After a tumultuous 2023 that frayed relationships between the House and Senate, members said they were waiting to see what the House Majority would do with the override and other pending education funding.
To be clear, overriding the governor’s budget veto has always been a longshot given that it requires a three-quarter majority of all legislators.
For their part, the House’s Republican leadership refused to debate Schrage or other members during the floor vote. Caucus-less Republican Rep. David Eastman even supported the effort, arguing it’s their duty under the Alaska Constitution to act on vetoes and blasting Republicans for failing to stand up for their opposition. The three non-Republican members of the House Majority — Reps. Bryce Edgmon, Neal Foster and Rep. CJ McCormick — also split from the majority but didn’t speak to the issue.
That left the vote with all 20 Republican members of the House Majority voting against taking the education veto into a joint session.
House Speaker Cathy Tilton finally addressed the vote during the majority’s news conference after first talking about the Majority’s support for Dunleavy’s energy initiatives, arguing that the group’s chosen approach of a wide-ranging omnibus package that wraps several other education issues together with much less funding is better.
“Going into a joint session for a veto override is not what our caucus is focused on,” she said. “We’re focused on long-term solutions for education.”
Rep. Craig Johnson, the Anchorage Republican who chairs the House Rules Committee, outlined some of those pieces during the news conference. The legislation is expected to be unveiled at a meeting on Wednesday afternoon as a new version of Senate Bill 140, which initially dealt just with internet connectivity in schools.
He said it will also include legislation relating to public charter schools, the governor’s bill to directly pay teachers for staying through a school year, and several other unspecified issues. As for education, he said the legislation will include a much smaller increase in the base student allocation, a figure used to determine funding for districts based on their size, location, and other needs, and that no matter the number, people would think it’s too little or too much.
“Three hundred bucks,” he said, finally.
For most, it’ll be too little.
At the last news conference of the day, House Minority Leader Schrage noted that the legislation outlined by Johnson would actually translate to a cut to the school funding from the budget approved last year, even when factoring in the governor’s vetoes. The $174 million approved by the Legislature equated to a roughly $680 increase to the BSA. Dunleavy’s veto reduced the funding to what would have effectively been a $340 increase.
House Minority Whip Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, said she was surprised to see the turn from the House Majority members after they supported education last year.
“Last year, the amendment that increased the BSA to $685 was put forward by the majority. It was voted on three times by the majority and was supported three times by the majority. It confuses me and makes me question what happened. Now, not a one of them,” she said. “I guess they’ve just decided over the year they are not going to support education. … It’s a little odd.”
One hint for that change came from House Finance Committee co-chair Rep. DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, who noted that the $174 million infusion last year originated from the House Majority but that the final figure was ultimately a deal with Dunleavy.
“We’ve proven our support for education,” she said, highlighting the fact that the House Majority put forward the $174 million last year. “It was a negotiation with the governor, and the governor said not so much. We’re listening to that.”
Dunleavy has been a steadfast opponent to permanently increasing education funding. His administration has argued for more targeted approaches to funding, such as his teacher pay proposal (which would equate to less than $60 million over five years), that would take much of the decisionmaking power around school budgets out of local hands.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
