State offers bogus constitutional claim on university funding

The shortest article in the Alaska Constitution, No. 7, deals with public schools, the University of Alaska, public health and public welfare.

Former Territorial Gov. Ernest Gruening addressed the Alaska Constitutional Convention on its first day, Nov. 8, 1955, and said that the most inspired of the actions that led Alaskans to write a Constitution was the selection of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks as the convention site.

“A university is really the keeper of the soul of a modern society and if this convention does not have and will not have a high inspirational quality it will not succeed. But it has that inspirational quality, and it will succeed,” said the former territorial governor and future U.S. senator.

I wonder what Gruening would have said about the soul of modern Alaska and the quality of inspiration had he been in Juneau last week to hear a representative of Gov. Mike Dunleavy claim that the state doesn’t have a constitutional duty to fund its state university.

Mike Barnhill, delegated by temporary budget director Donna Arduin to push for a 41 percent reduction in state general funds, a cut of $134 million, summarized his theory as, “Alaska Constitution establishes university, but is silent re funding.”

“The university in slides has made the point that because the university is established in the Constitution that makes it a core constitutional service,” he told a finance subcommittee.

“What I want to say to the committee is the Constitution is silent as to funding. It’s simply established. I would argue and happy to argue at length at another time and place that there’s no constitutional requirement for funding of the university.”

Anchorage Rep. Zack Fields thought that was the right time and place to argue. “That’s an absurd argument,” Fields said.

He said it is ludicrous to contend that the authors of the Constitution would establish the University of Alaska as the state university, without expecting the state to support it.

“I’m happy to engage. I don’t think it’s a ludicrous statement,” said Barnhill.

Elsewhere in Article VII in the Alaska Constitution, which Barnhill mistakenly said was Article VI, there is a requirement for the Legislature to “establish and maintain” a public school system. The section related to the university says the university is “established” and it doesn’t mention that it be maintained.

According to Barnhill, by not mentioning the need to maintain, the Constitution authors were telling future Alaskans that state support wasn’t required.

“It’s a moot point because we’re not talking today about eliminating funding,” Barnhill said. “I’m just pushing back, I hope gently, but maybe it’s perceived as more than gently, on the notion that funding is constitutionally required. Let’s say it’s an open question for purposes of discussion.”

Fields was right. This is absurd and ludicrous. It’s not an open question.

The Constitution doesn’t say that the university shall be maintained by the state because it explicitly grants authority to the Board of Regents to govern the university.

During the proceedings of the convention, which can be found here, check the statement on Page 2,792 by delegate Vic Rivers, who said “the main point this article has is that constitutionally the University of Alaska shall be the only state university in Alaska.”

Rivers said the university could have a number of branches, but it would be all part of one system. He said the thinking was that instead of having multiple universities competing in the Legislature and elsewhere for funding, there would be a single state university. This was to unify the university, not to give ammunition six decades later to state officials to claim it was not a constitutional priority.

With this constitutional claim, the Dunleavy administration is guilty of state overreach in its attempt to downgrade the university, while never talking about taxes and tradeoffs, only the size of the Permanent Fund Dividend.

For more of Dermot Cole’s work, go to www.dermotcole.com