Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s threat to veto the Alaska Legislature’s education bill unless he gets a second bill filled with his priorities hasn’t exactly lit a fire under lawmakers. After the drag-out fight to pass the first bill, the threat appears to have been more deflating than motivating, as major questions about the cost of the governor’s demands and their efficacy remain.
At a hearing on the budget last week, members of the powerful Senate Finance Committee cast doubt about whether the budget has room for the $60 million the governor’s teacher bonus program will cost.
“I don’t see where there would be room to address the bonuses given our current financial situation,” said Sen. Lyman Hoffman, noting the legislation passed with “overwhelming support.”
Whether that program is a good idea in the first place is a question that the Senate Education Committee will try to answer this week in a series of meetings to examine the governor’s teacher bonus program and his proposal to give the state Board of Education the power to create local charter schools.
“We are trying desperately to figure out a pathway forward and understand the interest and policy choices that many of our stakeholders are looking to enact and how they might affect the current way our education system is structured,” said Sen. Löki Tobin, the chair of the Senate Education Committee. “We’re planning to have a really honest and robust public conversation about what are the pros and the cons, the ups and the downs, and the left and the rights of these particular policy choices.”
Dunleavy and House Republicans tried to bypass the legislative process with their education omnibus bill at the start of the session. House Republicans grafted a wide swath of conservative priorities — including the governor’s teacher bonus program and the charter school expansion — onto a Senate bill dealing with internet upgrades for rural schools. The House held a single hearing on the package before bringing it to the floor for a vote, leaving the public and wary legislators had little opportunity to review the bill.
That gambit proved costly for Republicans when they failed to muster enough votes to even adopt the omnibus as the working bill on the floor. Instead, the bipartisan House Minority and Senate Majority had a strong hand to play in crafting the education bill that ultimately passed. That saw a $680 increase to the base student allocation, which determines baseline education funding, but no teacher bonus program and a new statewide charter school position rather than expanded powers for the governor.
While the governor has insisted that bonuses and expanded charter schools will be more effective at improving schools than increased school funding, his administration has been unable to answer basic questions about how the programs would work. With the charter schools, specifically, they’ve been unable to explain how funding would work when the state would be able to force local school districts to take them on. They’ve said the issues will be resolved through the regulatory process, which is largely outside legislators’ reach.
That’s a problem for Tobin, who worries that it could be disastrous for small school districts.
“There are large policy calls when you think about removing that local school board as the sole authorizer yet making them responsible for education offerings in their communities. I want to be sure that those folks have a seat at the table,” she said. “It won’t be an immediate fix if we do disrupt or destabilize some of these very small school sites.”
As for the teacher bonus program — which would pay teachers between $5,000 and $15,000 for completing a year of teaching for the next three years — Sen. Tobin questioned whether it was really the best bang for the state’s buck. She noted that research has shown the impacts of bonuses are limited and short-lived, especially compared to other more meaningful supports like improved working conditions and higher pay.
“You have to look at the issue from all angles,” she said. “When you think about some of the things being asked, I’m not content that they’ve really been evaluated from every angle.”
The Senate Education Committee is set to hear an update on the charter school provisions — which the governor never introduced as a bill — Monday at 3:30 p.m. The teacher bonus program is set to be heard at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
If the Legislature can’t pass a second bill appeasing the governor by mid-March, he has promised to veto the legislation. The Legislature could vote to override the legislation, a threshold that requires two-thirds of all legislators (40 of 60) to support the effort.
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.
