Every year, the Anchorage School District sends a budget to the Anchorage Assembly by the first week of March. They must do this, according to our municipal charter. The Alaska Legislature rarely finishes education funding by that date, or even that month. That leads to the school board scrambling to create a budget without knowing how much revenue we’ll get from Juneau. It causes heartache when teachers and other district staff face uncertainty under a temporary budget that may not be the final one. It’s now late April, and the Alaska Legislature is still debating how much to fund education.
Let’s have the Assembly and ASD discuss a reasonable process for the district to follow. Then it’s time to change the charter to a date that will work for everyone.
— Cheryl Lovegreen
Anchorage
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