Following his second veto of legislators’ attempts to increase funding for the public school system, Alaska GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy presented an alternative that he says would have his support.
“This is a bill that, if agreed upon by the Legislature, I’ll sign tomorrow morning. I’ll sign Monday. I’ll sign Tuesday … because it will have policies in there,” Dunleavy said at a news conference on Thursday of a bill with “targeted” funding that would go to homeschool students and top-performing schools – programs that serve a smaller group of typically wealthier, less-diverse students. “We support funding, but we’re not going to support a very large, unbalanced, one-sided coin that is just funding, when we have opportunities to improve educational outcomes.”
But make no mistake, the legislation isn’t the lifeline that school districts staring down school closures, ballooning class sizes and fewer programs are hoping for.
That’s because his legislation would effectively cut funding for most students.
While Dunleavy’s bill includes a $560 increase to the state’s baseline per-student funding formula, the Base Student Allocation, it’s less than what the Alaska Legislature approved in one-time funding following last year’s veto. The difference amounts to about $30 million less in state funding for public schools, and more than $100 million less than what the Legislature had approved earlier this month.
The only groups that would likely come out ahead under the governor’s bill are homeschool programs, which he proposes increasing the funding to be on par with students in brick-and-mortar schools, and districts with students already reading at higher levels. That means districts with large numbers of homeschool students and top-performing students would come out better than those with a higher number of struggling students.
“That’s not smart spending,” Juneau Democratic Sen. Jesse Kiehl told the Anchorage Daily News, noting that while he homeschooled his children, the programs don’t need help. “Money is tight. We should only spend it where it’s necessary.”
Kiehl told the paper that it’s unacceptable to be cutting school funding at this time.
“To give school districts fewer dollars they can use to pay the bills for everything this coming year than in the current year is a non-starter. Their insurance bills are higher, their health care bills are higher, their teacher pay darn well ought to be higher,” Kiehl said.
While the Legislature has heard hours of testimony from teachers, students and school districts about the tough decisions coming without a substantial increase in state support, they’ve also heard testimony from homeschool programs that they’re on stable financial footing. Legislators have also argued that homeschool students will still benefit from an increase in baseline student funding.
Still, increased targeted funding for homeschool programs has long been a priority for Dunleavy and his allies. Spending in the programs has become increasingly lax under Dunleavy’s time in office, allowing families who are already enrolled in private or religious schools to also enroll in the programs and use the funds to cover tuition or extracurriculars, such as horseback riding lessons. Dunleavy and his allies have defended the programs as a matter of “school choice” and claimed that they’re better-performing than neighborhood schools, a point that’s undercut by the fact that a vast majority of homeschool students do not participate in standardized testing.
The path forward for school funding is uncertain.
Dunleavy has shown little appetite for negotiations with the Legislature. His new proposal largely mirrors what he offered at the start of the legislative session, which failed to gain traction in a Legislature controlled by two coalition majorities. There’s little, if anything, that looks like an attempt by the governor to compromise. Rather, he’s essentially continuing to demand that he gets his way.
That sets up the Legislature for a potential override vote of the veto, but it’s unlikely that they’ll muster the votes given the two-thirds threshold for an override. A more likely course of action is another round of one-time money through the budget that leaves the BSA untouched and districts facing another year of uncertainty.
“To say I am disappointed Governor Dunleavy vetoed education funding is an understatement,” said Tom Klaameyer, NEA-Alaska president, in an emailed statement. “Unfortunately, it’s not surprising. We knew this Governor was going to play politics with Alaska students’ futures – and it’s disgraceful…. I urge every legislator to vote to override Governor Dunleavy’s veto and do the right thing for our kids.”
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.
