School boards move to retire a call to expand a dormant loan program

Alaska's teacher education loan program, which once helped aspiring teachers pay for school, hasn't made a new loan since 2018. Now the group that represents the state's local school boards is dropping its call to expand it — because there is nothing left to expand.

The Association of Alaska School Boards is recommending that a long-standing resolution urging the program's expansion be retired, saying its "objective has been accomplished." Of 14 resolutions the board reviewed for renewal this year, it is the only one being allowed to lapse.

Over its run, the program issued 3,879 loans to 1,368 borrowers, worth about $24.7 million, before it went dormant. Retiring the resolution ends the association's push to revive and expand it, though it would not change the recruitment incentives the state offers teachers now. The association's own legislative focus has shifted elsewhere — chiefly to restoring the defined-benefit pensions school staff lost years ago.

Member boards can submit comments or amendments through Oct. 7, and the full membership will take up the resolutions at the association's annual conference in Anchorage, Nov. 5-8.