Here we go again.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy today vetoed legislators’ latest attempt to permanently increase public school funding, marking the third time in just two years the governor has blocked a public school funding bill from becoming law.
The veto is largely expected after the governor and Education Commissioner Deena Bishop spent the last two weeks attempting to strong-arm school districts into opposing the bill, but his reasoning also draws a new battle line in the education funding debate.
Funding public schools, Dunleavy claims, doesn’t matter.
“There is no evidence that a permanent increase in the base student allocation will improve educational outcomes,” he wrote, not offering any evidence of his own. “Therefore, the bill in its current form does not serve the best interest of Alaskans.”
Legislators passed House Bill 57, which would essentially make last year’s one-time money permanent when adjusted for inflation, boost bus funding and secure reading grants, with a veto-proof 48-11 majority (it takes 40 to override a veto). However, that’s only if legislators stick to their original vote on the bill’s passage. Several Republicans showed that you can’t count on that when they flipped on the first education bill that Dunleavy vetoed last year.
The Legislature is set to meet in a joint session at 9 a.m. on Tuesday to vote on an override, with many seeming more optimistic this time around.
Still, even if legislators override the bill’s veto, the governor has other ways to undermine public education funding. He could veto funding for the base student allocation from the operating budget, which would mark the first time in the state’s history that it funds education under the way it’s laid out in law. Several legislators have suggested the state is already risking a lawsuit with the way it funds schools.
It’s the latest round of uncertainty for public schools in Alaska, which have warned that they’ll be forced to close schools, cut programs and increase class sizes as flat funding has run up against ballooning inflation costs. They argue that it’s difficult to effectively educate children in crowded classrooms, chalking up the state’s middling educational outcomes to a broad lack of resources.
Dunleavy’s latest claim that there’s “no evidence” funding matters marks an escalation of the governor’s rhetoric on schools.
The claim comes after the governor penned an editorial where he accused “the Education Cabal” – a cudgel of a term he uses to label teachers, teaching unions and political opponents – of being solely motivated by financial gain and not prioritizing student outcomes. Dunleavy has claimed that policy changes, rather than funding, are the major difference-makers in education; however, his policies, for the most part, aim to entrench a system of haves and have-nots in public schooling.
He has demanded that legislators expand programs that he claims are more effective, such as public charter schools that have higher barriers of entry than neighborhood schools and thus can screen out kids from lower-income families. Legislators ignored his demands, warning that his proposals would wrench control of education away from the local communities charged with running them. Others dispute his claim that they’re as effective as he claims, pointing out that they’re limited to families with the means to take advantage of them and thus are filled with kids from wealthier families that would tend to do better regardless of the school they’re in.
More: Dunleavy’s push for a two-tier education system would only worsen inequities
In an op-ed published in the Alaska Beacon, Fairbanks resident Sarah K. Lewis dug into this claim, noting charter schools aren’t the fix Dunleavy claims because they’re not accessible to everyone. Charters lack transportation, some don’t provide meals and most require significant commitments of volunteer time.
“This magnitude of commitment is not possible for many, many families,” Lewis wrote. “Advocating for more charters is not a way forward; instead, it is the foremost example of the short-sighted leadership that has led Alaska down this devastating path. Public education is not supposed to be a caste system.”
Several legislators were also quick to bash Dunleavy’s veto as out of touch.
“There is a huge amount of evidence that a lack of funding harms outcomes, much of which was presented to the Education Committee,” wrote Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, on Bluesky. “Dunleavy’s veto tantrum is childish and destructive, and the statement in support of it is based on a lie.”
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.
