This commentary was originally published on akmemo.com.
“I support the governor’s vision on education. Yet I will be voting to override his veto,” wrote Fairbanks Republican Rep. Will Stapp in an editorial published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner over the weekend.
A freshman and a relative moderate in the House Majority, Stapp wrote that he supported the governor’s vision of expanded school choice options for families and believed that paying bonuses would make a difference. However, As much as he believes in that vision, he wrote that he was not willing to sacrifice the hard-fought compromise that is contained in Senate Bill 140. Not only does the legislation deliver the largest single increase in school funding in state history (which, admittedly, is not that difficult, given the state’s history), but it provides a sizeable increase to funding for students in homeschool programs and establishes a state position to assist in the formation of new charters. It’s not everything, he wrote, but it’s a lot.
“I believe SB140 is a bill that will lead to more successful educational outcomes,” Stapp wrote. “Success breeds success. If SB140 becomes law, it will enhance the Alaska Reads Act, strengthen correspondence programs, and bolster charter schools.”
In essence, take the win, as imperfect as it may be, and live to fight another day.
Whether enough Republicans have the courage to see it that way is an open question.
Rep. Stapp’s pragmatism runs in direct contradiction to the governor’s demand that everyone just forget the effort to override and “move on” from the education debate, a demand that the governor and his allies have reportedly tried to back up with threats of well-funded hard-right opponents (the efficacy of which is undercut with the state’s ranked-choice voting system, where many moderate Republicans in office have already overcome hard-right challengers). As they’ve shown with past vetoes, GOP legislators have been reluctant to buck a vindictive governor with a track record of blacklisting, vetoing and campaigning against legislators deemed disloyal.
But, as I believe many are likely contemplating over this weekend, to do so would mark a surrender by the Alaska Legislature.
Setting aside the politics of the issue, this is a governor demanding that legislators abandon a hard-fought piece of legislation that passed with the support of 56 of 60 legislators simply because he didn’t get his way. And, as has become abundantly clear over the course of his ranting and raving hourlong news conferences, there’s not some well-thought-out policy hanging in the balance but, simply, the governor’s ego. He’s consumed with how he’s viewed and this idea that he, alone, knows best.
But since when does the governor get to tell the Legislature how to do things?
Missing the vision
But perhaps even more glaring is that the governor’s demands do very little to accomplish the vision that Rep. Stapp says he shares.
In hearings before the Senate Education Committee, we learned that—surprise—charter schools aren’t somehow magically insulated from the budget woes faced by neighborhood schools. They still have to pay teachers and heat buildings, something that a BSA increase would address. It doesn’t do anything to address the issue of access, either. Charters don’t usually offer transportation, and some don’t even offer meals on-site. As we should never forget, there are many kids in Alaska who don’t have reliable meals outside of their neighborhood schools. This idea that charters are somehow the easy shortcut around funding problems faced by schools is flatly false. As several school administrators testified in Senate Education, they spend more on managing charter programs than they receive in funding.
“Every dollar you’re putting into charter schools is a dollar you’re taking out of neighborhood schools,” said Sen. Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat who has been a key negotiator for the Senate on the education bill.
The governor’s proposed change does not address any of those issues.
Instead, it would give the Board of Education the power to approve charters without the input of the districts responsible for running them with next to nothing setting standards, meaningful oversight or funding expectations. It’s important to remember that this Board of Education has been more than happy to serve as an extension of the Dunleavy administration, implementing its rule banning trans students from playing on teams that match their gender identity. Its members, like Alaska Policy Forum denizen Bob Griffin, have been avid supporters of changes to let public funds flow into private and religious programs, which is a violation of the Alaska Constitution. Changing that constitutional protection also happened to be the one legislative priority that Senator Dunleavy was ever interested in.
So, Dunleavy’s ask isn’t to broadly expand charter schools. If it were, he’d offer a more concrete plan to address the actual barriers to charter schools, like increased funding, transportation, food and access to facilities.
It would look a lot like a BSA increase.
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.