Alaska school leaders tell education task force to raise funding and fix buildings

Alaska superintendents, principals and teachers largely backed the Legislature's Task Force on Education Funding's draft plan on Thursday, and pressed for more: a bigger per-student allocation, separate funding for school buildings and a return to pensions for teachers.

The task force released its draft recommendations Nov. 9. Its top recommendation is an independent study of what an adequate education in Alaska costs. The Legislature put $400,000 for that study in this year's budget, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it. The task force wants the money back in the next budget bill.

School administrators also want an immediate increase. Lisa Parady, executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, asked lawmakers to pass at least a $254.6 million increase by Feb. 15. That's what it would take to restore the base student allocation's buying power to 2017 levels, $1,011 more per student, according to a calculation she said the Legislative Finance Division made.

"Alaska is experiencing an educator shortage crisis right now, the worst in our history," said Jennifer Schmitz, director of the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center. Districts started this school year with 311 teacher vacancies and 339 teachers on emergency certificates, she said.

Several testifiers focused on buildings. The draft recommends paying for building operations, upkeep and repairs from a separate pot, so that money stops coming out of the per-student allocation that pays for teaching. "Keeping a roof intact or heating the building during the Alaskan winter should never require cutting teachers, class offerings, or student support or student activities," said Valdez City Schools Superintendent Jason Weber. His district's insurance went up 20% last year and is headed up 30% next year, he said.

The Anchorage School District alone has $1.5 billion in deferred maintenance, said Deputy Superintendent Madeline Aguilar. Keeping up with roof life cycles would mean replacing three roofs every year, she said. The draft puts the statewide backlog of major maintenance requests at $535 million.

Weber also backed the draft's call to base funding on a three-year enrollment average, which would smooth out funding when enrollment changes. The state House passed a bill to do that 31-9 in May, and the task force recommends lawmakers pass something similar.

Pensions aren't in the draft, but several educators asked for them. Fairbanks North Star Borough School District Superintendent Luke Meinert said his defined-benefit pension "has been a significant reason why I've stayed in Alaska." Teachers hired since 2006 get a 401(k)-style plan instead. "I am tier 3. I will most likely never be able to retire unless the system changes," said Kathleen Yerbich, a Wasilla teacher.

Homeschool parents raised a separate objection, to a draft line asking districts to look at folding correspondence programs into "a broader brick-and-mortar framework." A Mat-Su parent who homeschools five children urged the task force "not to mess that up by creating too much standardization."

Written comments are open through Dec. 8. The final report is due Jan. 19, the first day of the 2027 session. The Senate Education Committee plans to take it up the next day.