OPINION: Alaska’s public schools deserve our help

For a well-functioning community and an educated and trained local work force, our families and businesses depend on good public education, from pre-K through post-secondary and from skills training through graduate programs. In turn, good public education depends on the Alaska Legislature to pass wise legislation and to provide adequate funding for educators to do their jobs.

The Alaska Reads Act, passed by the last Legislature with the support of the governor, expands pre-K education and creates four new programs within the Department of Education and Early Development: an early education program, a reading intervention program, a school improvement reading program and a virtual education consortium. This is wise legislation.

Unfortunately, the Legislature did only half of its job — it failed to adequately increase the base student allocation (BSA), the formula used to calculate how much money each district will receive from the state to cover the cost of running K-12 schools, and it failed to reopen the state’s pension programs for teachers. The Legislature last increased the BSA in 2017, and since then, inflation has reduced the amount of state funding for schools by more than 8%, even before accounting for the high rate of inflation Alaska and the nation is experiencing. In 2005, Alaska froze the state’s traditional defined-benefit pension plan and created a self-managed 401 (k)-style retirement plan for new public employees and teachers, resulting in high teacher turnover and increased costs.

Some say that Alaska’s public schools cost more than they should and that more state funding is not needed. For sure, there are areas where schools could be more efficient and where more of the available funding should be used in the classroom rather than running the schools. But Alaska spends less than the national average on a per-pupil basis when adjusted for cost of living. And this does not take into consideration the dramatically high costs in Alaska due to our woefully inadequate transportation, energy, and telecommunication infrastructure – not only in rural areas but right here in Anchorage.

Some say that the relatively poor performance of our schools is due to a lack of accountability, not a lack of funding. Sadly, Alaska’s schools recently performed at or near the bottom of the nation in standardized math and reading tests. But Alaska’s schools once rated much higher, and the fall in performance scores has followed the fall in funding and the elimination of teacher pensions.  The Nation’s Report Card, published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, tells the story. In 1996, Alaska’s fourth grade reading scores were above the national average, and they remained on par with the national average through 2007, the year following Alaska’s elimination of teacher pensions. In 2009, Alaska’s fourth grade reading scores were significantly below the national average for the first time, and the gap has been steadily widening since.

And some say they first want to see improved performance from public schools before they are willing to increase education funding.  But if we all agree that public education is underfunded, why don’t we agree to provide schools with the funding needed to improve student outcomes? It’s like saying, “the beatings will continue until morale improves.”

There is no doubt that Alaska school boards and school administrators have made mistakes and could do better. In fact, some now acknowledge that it was wrong to close our schools during the pandemic. But school districts, schools, and teachers have been through a lot, and they are accomplishing much with the limited resources and many challenges they face. They need and deserve our support now more than ever. Our children — and our families and businesses — are depending upon us to provide it.

Walter Featherly is a candidate for the Alaska House District 11 in Anchorage and a long-time supporter of education in Alaska.

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