Lawmakers and education advocates notched a big win last year when they successfully enacted a permanent increase to school funding over Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s objections. But, advocates say funding problems still haunt the state’s schools.
In a series of hearings this week, lawmakers have heard from schools, students and education groups that they’re facing sizeable budget deficits and tough decisions that will ultimately lead to larger class sizes and fewer opportunities for students. Some also said they’re struggling with aging buildings — including broken pipes, chilly classrooms and other unsafe conditions — as the state’s maintenance backlog continues to grow.
At a hearing with the joint House and Senate education committees, several teachers testified that they’re struggling to teach in facilities that are essentially falling apart. The supposed compromise between students’ needs and the budget isn’t working.
“How are we supposed to compromise on our failing generator? How are we supposed to compromise on our broken water boilers? … How can we compromise? We are retreating to our core functions, and those core functions are also failing,” said Hoonah High School history teacher Nathan Fonts. “What am I supposed to say when my students are cold?”
Last year’s funding increase, while historically large, came after nearly a decade of essentially flat funding and rising inflation costs. Even at the time, many warned that last year’s increase wasn’t even keeping pace with needs. And that’s borne out to be true this year, with just about every major school district grappling with multimillion-dollar deficits.
And on top of the insufficient funding for day-to-day operations, several warned that the infrastructure needs are dire throughout the state. A report last year found students in many rural communities were forced to attend classes in buildings with raw sewage, black mold, bats and other structural issues. In January, Aniak closed its junior and senior high school due to structural concerns with the gym’s roof.
Legislators have tried to increase funding for school construction and maintenance in recent years, including several projects targeted specifically at the state-run boarding school Mt. Edgecumbe High School, but most have run into vetoes by Dunleavy.
Things have become so dire at Mt. Edgecumbe that legislators visited the school last week to tour the facilities. They returned, reporting that conditions were “deplorable.”
Rhonda Pitka, a board member of Yukon Flats School District, agreed that schools are struggling with maintenance amid the ongoing lack of funding.
“Holding together a 45-year-old school with duct tape and wire and one guy and whatever little tools he has, it’s become a serious problem,” she said.
And as much as teachers and school officials say they’re working to insulate students from harm, students are noticing.
“I have never had the opportunity to learn in a classroom that was funded enough to have materials for everyone since elementary school,” testified Juneau student Maddie Bass.
Others from rural communities complained that broken plumbing in schools made the water unsafe to drink and made students sick from the smell.
“It’s cold out here for the students,” said Sylvia Oguk, a student in the Northwest Arctic Borough School District. “Now that it’s freezing outside our door, rusty pipes keep bursting and leaving us without water. It’s impossible to focus on our classes.”
While legislators have broadly said they’d like to increase funding for school districts, there’s less clarity about what the state can actually afford and what, if anything, Dunleavy might allow to become law. Legislators have considered reworking state funding mechanisms so that declining enrollment doesn’t result in steep budget cliffs, as well as other measures to create automatic inflation adjustments.
In the big picture, educators warned that balancing the budget on the backs of students was bad policy that sold the state’s future short.
“I think we got it a little, pardon my language, bass ackwards as far as funding our schools and it’s really hurting us in the long run. Our children are not getting the education that they need, basically because of the way the paper shuffles,” said Jack Strong, a member of the Chatham School District. “I don’t know where the state is going to save all kinds of money by not educating our children the way they should be educated… We need funding in schools, otherwise we’re giving up on our future.”
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.
