By one vote, legislature fails to override governor’s veto of education bill

By one vote, the state Legislature failed to override governor’s veto of Senate Bill 140, a major education funding bill. The combined vote in a joint session of the state House and Senate on Monday, March 18, was 39 for the override and 20 opposed, which failed to meet the threshold of 40 votes to override in the state Constitution.

In the 20-member Senate, there were 16 votes to override and four votes to sustain the veto. All three state senators from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough voted against the override.

In the 40-member state House there were 23 votes to override the veto and 16 to sustain it.

The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the combined House and Senate, or 40 of the 60 members of the Legislature, to override the veto.

The debate on the override took two hours Monday afternoon. Senators and House members mostly rehashed familiar arguments for and against SB 140, which has been the most contentious bill before the Legislature so far this year.

The bill provides a substantial boost in state funding for hard-pressed school districts around the state, including the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, and passed the House and Senate earlier by wide margins.

Mat-Su school superintendent Randy Traini has warned that without the funding increase the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District will face a $30 million budget deficit next year.

SB 140 contained several elements: A $680 increase in the Base Student Allocation, the formula that guides state funding for schools; authorization for increased internet speeds for schools from 25 Mps (megabits per second) to 100Mps, which will result in funding for school internet; intent language that, to the greatest extent possible, additional funds in the bill be directed to the classroom in the form of teacher bonuses with each school district providing a report to the next Legislature describing efforts to comply with the legislative intent; should a district terminate the charter of a charter school, the charter may appeal the district decision to the Commissioner of Education; a charter school coordinator position shall be established within the Department of Education and Early Development, , or DEED; increased pupil transportation for schools, which is important to Mat-Su; and for correspondence students to receive funding at the same level as children in traditional “brick and mortar’ schools, and $500 for each K-3 student who is determined to have a reading deficiency. This money would have provided for intervention services in implementation of the new Alaska Reads Act.

However, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said this didn’t go far enough. Two proposals he favors were not included, a process for charter schools to be approved by the state Board of Education, the members of which the governor appoints, and a teacher retention bonus Dunleavy proposed last year that the legislature has not acted on.

Dunleavy’s charter school proposal prompted the most opposition because it would allow the politically-appointed state school board to approve charter school applications that have not been vetted and approved by a local school board.

Requirements for charter schools are stringent including on finances, which is important because charter schools are funded from local school district budgets.

In the absence of charter applications being vetted on the local level the state education department would have to do it, which will add expense. There are different models for charter school applications and approvals used in other states but consideration of these alternatives will take time and are best done in separate legislation, lawmakers have said.

Educators responded to the veto in stern language: “It's unfortunate that the governor is willing to trade off important investments that would benefit all students, in return for his proposed education reforms related to charter school authorizers and teacher retention bonuses,” said Lon Garrison, Executive Director of the Alaska Association of School Boards.

“These proposals have faced significant opposition from parents, community members, educators, and legislators alike. These reforms are not what local school boards hear from their constituents as their greatest need,” Garrison said.

“The veto sabotaged several weeks of hard work and bipartisan collaboration by the Legislature to provide a significant investment in public education that would have benefited every school district and student in the state,” he said.

The governor's decision to veto the increase to the Base Student Allocation and the additional funds for students who require an individual reading intervention plan will have a direct impact on the implementation and success of the Alaska Reads Act, Garrison said.

“Without the added funds for students in need and the BSA increase, the effectiveness of the Alaska Reads Act will be compromised,” he said.

But there were also those speaking in favor of the veto:

“Major hikes in K-12 spending without education reforms have not worked in the past for Alaska,” said Bob Griffin, member of state school board and senior Education Research Fellow with the Alaska Policy Forum, a conservative think-tank, in a letter to Alaska newspapers.

“Between 2003 and 2023, state education spending increased by 90.6 percent pr student while inflation was 64.7 percent. Alaska student National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores in every category declined significantly in those 20 years,” Griffin wrote.

“Reinforcing our very successful charter schools is low-hanging fruit to improving student outcomes,” he said.

“Alaska is one of only five states that leaves the power of approval and expansion of public charter schools solely in the hands of local school districts, which are often hostile to charter school expansion,” Griffin wrote.