0:52

Jim Anderson

21:39 - 22:31

"71% of the community supported closing and combining schools. What we also see though, and we've seen it during community conversations, town halls, other surveys is people do recognize that a better education level of service is important."

71% of the community supported closing and combining schools. What we also see though, and we've seen it during community conversations, town halls, other surveys is people do recognize that a better education level of service is important.
Speaker
Jim Anderson
Community
Alaska News
Location
Anchorage
Captured at
August 26, 2026

From the transcript

In December, as part of Andy's balancing act, just like multiple other surveys we had done, um, we saw the numbers and it was pretty high that 71% of the community supported closing and combining schools. What we also see though, and we've seen it during community conversations, town halls, other surveys is people do recognize that a better education level of service is important. They understand that we didn't have the money to keep doing everything the way we had always done it. But in every single case, as soon as you pick a school, they certainly believe that's the wrong school and that any other school but their school is probably the better school. And it's— they've said publicly, email, everything else, And so we know that's a reality, and we're actually pretty proud that people—.

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