Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday made good on his promise to veto the second landmark public school funding bill in as many years.
Legislators approved House Bill 69 last week after the Senate stripped the legislation back to a funding-only bill. The legislation would have enshrined a $1,000 increase to the state’s per-student funding formula at a time when school districts are facing dire funding shortages, which they say will balloon class sizes and lead to more school closures.
Dunleavy, who has demanded changes to prop up programs that serve a smaller, typically wealthier group of students with targeted funding for homeschool students and an expansion of public charter schools, said it was a non-starter.
“The Senate’s new education bill is a joke!” he said in a post. “This is an obvious attempt to strong arm members of the legislature. This is an NEA teacher union dream! Hundreds of millions of dollars of new spending and no accountability called for.”
It’s the second time that Dunleavy has vetoed an education bill. Last year, he vetoed Senate Bill 140, which would have increased the BSA and delivered the targeted homeschool funding that he now claims is critical for his support. The Legislature failed to override the veto by a single vote, which became a central issue in the 2024 elections. That saw bipartisan coalitions take control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time in recent memory, setting up a collision course with a governor who has struggled to work with the Legislature during his six years in office.
As for this year, the governor has continued to insist on a sizeable boost to only homeschool programs — which under his administration’s relaxed oversight has seen more and more money go to private school tuition despite a constitutional prohibition on public school funds benefitting private and religious schools — as well as relaxed oversight of public charter programs. He has generally opposed any increase to the base student allocation, which would elevate funding for all students, including those in homeschool and charter programs.
Despite the demands, however, he has not been particularly engaged with the Legislature in advocating for his positions. Initial attempts at closed-door negotiations were not fruitful, and the governor has shown little interest in compromise. It’s a point that even some Republican allies have conceded is a problem.
“I am calling the governor out,” said Anchorage Republican Sen. James Kaufman. “It’s time to be much more engaged.”
In the big picture, the Legislature likely lacks the votes to override the governor’s veto, a point that several Republicans made during the debates on the bill. Still, an attempted override session could be politically damaging for Republicans in moderate districts. With little appetite for compromise, it likely leaves the Legislature falling back on another one-time increase to public school funding through the state’s operating budget.
Districts have complained that that kind of funding leaves them with a lot of uncertainty that makes it difficult to plan or recruit and retain teachers.
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.
