Town Square Park in downtown Anchorage was packed with hundreds of people who turned out in the chilly weather to show their support for a permanent increase to K-12 funding.
The Alaska Legislature is set to gavel in on Tuesday, and rally organizers hope to encourage swift action to increase school funding through an increase to the base student allocation, the number used to determine funding levels for schools based on their size, attendance and other needs.
It’s likely to be a tough fight given the fact that Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy opposes such an increase to school funding and vetoed half of the one-time funding boost approved by legislators last year. That veto could be overridden if legislators can muster a tough three-quarter vote majority. A permanent increase nearly reached a final vote last session before the Dunleavy-aligned Republican leadership in the House snuffed out the effort in the final days of session.
Legislators — Democrats, independents and Republicans — who attended the rally said supporters shouldn’t take last session’s votes for granted and that people need to keep up the pressure.
“We know the public truly supports education,” Fairbanks Democratic Rep. Maxine Dibert, an elementary school teacher, told the rally. “We want to see it funded and care about our youths and students, but now we are going to need all of your voices again. … Call on your legislator to invest in education and make it permanent so that our kids and their kids have an education they deserve.”
Speakers called attention to Senate Bill 140, the legislation that contains a permanent increase to the base student allocation. The legislation is currently in the House Rules Committee, which is typically the unremarkable last stop before a bill is scheduled for a floor vote.
However, the committee has already scheduled a highly unusual hearing on the bill this Wednesday afternoon where the funding provision could be stripped out or other highly controversial elements — such as the governor’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill could be stapled on. What happens to the bill before it heads to the floor — if it ever heads to the House floor — will largely be in the hands of the leadership of the Republican House Majority.
“The fate of SB 140 lies in the hands of an Anchorage legislator,” said AFL-CIO President Joelle Hall, referencing House Rules Committee chair Rep. Craig Johnson. “I want you to blow up that man’s email box up. … Send him an email, send him a selfie, send him everything you’ve got.”
Education funding has long made for a bitter fight in the Alaska Legislature. Traditionally, conservative Republicans have opposed permanent increases to education and have complained that the funding doesn’t equate to better class performance. The partisan lines, however, are starting to blur with an influx of more moderate Republicans who’ve been more sympathetic to the financial woes faced by their local school districts.
One of those moderate Republicans is Kenai Republican Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, a high school teacher, who spoke at the rally. He said increasing school funding will help keep class sizes down and teachers around longer, building critical experience to help their students, and argued that a good education is good for the economy.
“It’s not OK when my third-grader Blake is one of 33 in his classroom. Lower class sizes mean kids will learn more. When folks challenge you, ‘How will more money help kids learn more and learn better and score higher on tests?’ More money for schools means kids learn more every day,” he said. “Their skills grow every day. They are able to do better because we’ve prioritized education better.”
The session starts on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
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.
