Alaska education website still invites comment on school funding rule the state board ended last October

Alaska's education department is still asking for public comment on a school funding regulation its board killed eleven months ago. The department's Local Contribution FAQ, checked Sept. 20, 2026, tells readers "The public comment period is open through July 25, 2025." That period closed fourteen months ago. The page's timeline stops on July 17, 2025, before the board acted. The Regulations page carries the notice as its only item, with a submission address and live comment deadline.

The State Board of Education and Early Development voted unanimously by roll call on Oct. 9, 2025, to take no action on proposed amendments to 4 AAC 09 and to direct the department to seek further input from stakeholders. The cover memo carrying that motion, signed by Commissioner Deena Bishop, was blunter than the minutes: returning the project "would end this regulation project, but would allow the Department to seek additional input on this issue and the Department could propose a new regulation amendment in the future."

The two-paragraph rule would have narrowed a local contribution to appropriations and in-kind services matching federal Impact Aid definitions. Impact Aid is federal money for districts that cannot tax nearby federal land. The department said the change would align state law with the federal disparity test, which allows no more than a 25 percent gap between a state's highest and lowest funded districts. Alaska failed it for fiscal 2026 and is appealing. Failing it can cost the state the right to count Impact Aid toward its local share, DEED told the board. A June 2025 emergency finding warned that leaving the regulations outdated risked fiscal consequences exceeding $80 million. Unalaska's superintendent put the cost to that district at between $1.7 million and $3.5 million. A Sitka commenter put Sitka's at up to $4 million. Those are the commenters' own estimates, filed in opposition, not departmental analysis. More than 600 comments arrived in five weeks. DEED told the board the rule reached only municipal and borough contributions, not private fundraising, grants or tribal support, a distinction that qualifies the estimates without resolving them.

The October minutes record that "Member Fowley recommended that DEED collaborate with a representative group of districts and return with an update or proposed actions by the March meeting," and that "Chair Stockhausen agreed this fits within the board's motion directing further stakeholder collaboration and requested regular updates at future meetings." Member Bergey had argued it was premature while the legislative education task force, which reports in January 2027, was still working.

The approved minutes of Jan. 22, 2026, do not mention local contribution or disparity. The approved minutes of March 10 and 11, 2026, the meeting Fowley named, list 23 agenda items and none is the regulation. The June 3 and 4, 2026, packet lists another 23 without it.

These records establish an absence from the board's public record, not that collaboration failed to happen; stakeholder work by phone or at superintendent meetings would leave no trace in minutes. The U.S. Department of Education certified Alaska's formula for fiscal 2027 in August 2026, separate from the FY2026 finding still under appeal.

The board has not met since June 4 and meets next on Oct. 13 and 14 in Sitka. Its approved schedule set no meeting in the July-to-September quarter.