Negotiators from the Alaska Legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy reportedly met today behind closed doors to discuss what, if any, common ground there might be for public education policy this year.
The meeting comes after the governor staked out his opposition to a widely popular bill increasing the state’s per-student funding formula, providing schools with about $363 million more annually. Instead, the governor has proposed increasing funding by less than a third of that amount, with much of the money tied to narrow purposes.
The agreement has led to a pause of sorts for straightforward education funding measures as the lawmakers try to work out a deal, but several public hearings already held on those bills have demonstrated near-unanimous public support for higher school funding.
Notably, the governor’s office even tried to drum up opposition to the hearings, going as far as distributing talking points for testifying against the bill, but had little success.
At a weekly news conference, Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kenai, said the decision to take the talk over school funding came at the governor’s request.
“Well, this was at the insistence of the governor. He asked us, and he asked the four leaders of each caucus to come forward and talk to him,” Stevens explained. “At this point, we’re trying just to work on a more friendly basis with the administration, and the other caucus is to try to find if they have some common ground. That’s the key right now. Do we have common ground?”
He said legislation work would happen publicly at the committee table.
Previously, the Senate and House leadership argued that funding should be kept separate from policy bills, but Dunleavy has argued the opposite. And though Alaska voters broadly supported a slate of legislators who support an increase in school funding — leading to the first time that both chambers of the Alaska Legislature have been aligned under coalitions of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans — they don’t command large enough numbers to ensure an override of any potential Dunleavy veto.
The governor has argued that legislators should tie funding increases to more extensive changes to the state’s public education policy. For Dunleavy, that has been a slate of policies under the banner of “school choice” that would expand the state’s homeschool and charter school programs, which by and large serve students who are wealthier and less diverse than the general student population.
About $43 million of the increase proposed by Dunleavy — more than a third of the funding — would go to homeschool programs, which only serve about 17% of all students.
Much of the governor’s demands have already been rejected by legislators. He’s also pushing for expanding charter schools and a teacher bonus program (in place of lasting pay raises) that have already been rejected by legislators. Critics have warned that the proposals would do little to address the state’s larger education crisis while delivering an outsized benefit to a small segment of students.
With the governor demanding a slate of largely unpopular education policies with a far smaller amount of funding tied to it, it’s unclear what, if any, common ground he may eventually find with legislators.
At the Senate’s news conference, several legislators made it clear that while they would be willing to meet with the governor, they were also prepared to take the lead.
“We know that every student deserves a well-rounded education and that they should be able to become productive citizens of our communities,” said Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, who chairs the Senate Education Committee. “I anticipate that in the weeks to come, you’ll see legislation that seeks to fulfill our constitutional duty, which is to ensure our schools have the resources they need to serve every student.”
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 Bluesky.
