School leaders urge Alaska education task force to raise funding and restore pensions

Alaska superintendents, principals and teacher groups urged the Legislature's Task Force on Education Funding on Thursday to raise base per-student funding, restore a defined-benefit pension and pay for school buildings outside classroom budgets. The task force released its draft recommendations Nov. 9 and is taking written comment through Dec. 8.

The draft's top recommendation calls for an independent study of what an adequate education costs, said Sen. Löki Tobin, a task force co-chair. The Legislature put $400,000 for the study in the current budget, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it, said Mike Mason, a Senate staff member for the task force. The task force recommends putting the money in the next budget bill.

"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. She said districts reported 311 first-day teacher vacancies and 339 teachers on emergency certificates this school year.

School administrators sought an immediate increase to the base student allocation, the per-student amount the state's school funding formula is built on. The Alaska Council of School Administrators asked lawmakers to pass at least a $254.6 million increase by Feb. 15, 2027. Lisa Parady, the council's executive director, said the Legislative Finance Division calculated that restoring the purchasing power lost since fiscal 2017 would take $1,011 more per student. The school boards association has said the 2025 increase of $700 covered only 39% of the funding gap.

The Anchorage School District alone has $1.5 billion in deferred maintenance, said Deputy Superintendent Madeline Aguilar. The statewide total is $2.4 billion, according to the Association of Alaska School Boards.

"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. He also backed the draft's call to base state funding on a three-year enrollment average, an approach the state House passed 31-9 in May.

Fairbanks North Star Borough Superintendent Luke Meinert said his defined-benefit pension is a significant reason he stayed in Alaska. "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 the draft's calls to review correspondence school laws and for districts to look at incorporating those programs into a broader brick-and-mortar framework. A Wasilla parent who homeschools five children urged the task force "not to mess that up by creating too much standardization."

The task force's final report is due Jan. 19, the first day of the 2027 session, and the Senate Education Committee plans to take public testimony on it Jan. 20.