Tight deadline for Legislature, governor in veto decision on education bill

Gov. Mike Dunleavy must decide his course of action on a highly-charged education funding bill by Thursday, March 14. The governor has said he wants additional education bills passed reflecting his priorities or else he may veto Senate Bill 140, a bill passed by the House and Senate that increases money for school districts and correspondence students along with an increase in internet capacity for schools needed particularly in small rural communities.

The bill also has more money to support school bus operations and to fund intensive reading instruction in the second and third grades of elementary school.

To avoid a veto, Dunleavy said he wants bills passed, possibly by Thursday, to fund two of his priorities: An additional path for approval of charter schools that would be direct to the state school board instead of through a local school district, and a bill establishing retention bonuses for teachers who extend their contracts, an effort to reduce turnover.

Higher bonuses would be paid to teachers in rural schools where turnover can reach 30 percent to 50 percent of the teaching staff.

The retention bonuses are in bills introduced last year and pending in the Legislature but the charter school provision, which faces intense opposition from local school boards, is not yet in a bill.

The Legislature can act quickly when it needs to pass legislation but the procedural path needed to pass the bills quickly, by Thursday, makes it extremely challenging, particularly for the charter school question.

The most important part of SB 140 is a section that increases the Base Student Allocation, or BSA, the formula in state law that guides funding for schools, by $680 per student. School districts are pushing hard for this because the current BSA of about $5,900 per student has not been increased for inflation since 2016, which means its real value, in terms of purchasing power, has declined significantly.

The debate over SB 140 has sharpened disagreements over how schools can be better supported. The governor, and many Republican legislators, say more money should be targeted to programs that are demonstrating success, such as charter schools.

Others, including school districts, say an increase in general funding for schools through the BSA is more important because traditional “brick and mortar” public schools are hit hard by general inflation and increases in basic overhead costs like heating, insurance and basic school maintenance.

Charter schools are as affected by this as traditional schools, educators say, because they are public schools funded out of the same school district budgets that are paid for mostly by the state through the BSA formula.

Because of the erosion of funding most school districts around the state are facing major deficits in their upcoming Fiscal 2025 budgets. Matanuska Susitna’s school district faces a $30 million deficit next year if SB 140 is vetoed and there is no increase in the BSA, Mat-Su Superintendent Randy Traini has told legislators in hearings.

Anchorage faces a potential $100 million shortfall. Fairbanks faces a deficit and will likely close four schools this year, Fairbanks North Star Borough officials have told lawmakers.

The debate is hot and heavy, though. Conservative groups, most recently Americans for Prosperity, are urging the governor to veto SB 140.

In a press release issued Monday, March 11, Beth Marcum, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said the bill, “aimlessly funnels additional money to Alaska’s education system without essential reforms.

“Before Alaska increases year-over-year school district funding, it must pass proven policies that put students first and improve education outcomes,” Americans for Prosperity said in its press release.

“To improve Alaska’s dismal education outcomes, funding should be used to directly support students instead of simply increasing generalized school district funding. This should be about our children, not buildings and bureaucracies,” Marcum said.

Educators are pushing back against that thinking. There’s nothing more basic in support of students and teachers, they say, than keeping buildings warm and getting students to school with adequately-funded school bus operations.

Also, one major new program where money is targeted to improving reading, the Alaska Reads Act, is showing promise but is underfunded in its implementation. The pending SB 140 puts more money into the program.

The governor does have choices, legislators say. To preserve his options past Thursday he could let SB 140 become law without his signature even short of the Legislature passing bills by then, but with a threat of his vetoing money to implement the bill from the budget later this spring if legislators don’t approve his priorities.

That would have the bill become law but without funds to implement it.

A legislative vote to overcome Dunleavy’s veto of either the bill or the funding is considered highly unlikely. It would take a two-thirds vote of the 60-member Legislature to overcome a veto of SB 140, but it would take a three-quarters vote to overturn budget line-item vetoes from the budget.

The three-quarters vote requirement will be particularly difficult to achieve.