OPINION: What’s the relationship between education investment and quality?

There’s broad awareness in Alaska about the need for a strong public education system. Families overwhelmingly support restoring school funding that’s been cut over the last decade, and many business organizations have made workforce their top priority. However, there is less understanding of how the top two legislative priorities — Base Student Allocation, or BSA, funding and pension reform — relate to quality. Let’s dig into the data.

Every parent and every teacher understands that manageable class sizes are a prerequisite for educational excellence. From 2016 to 2024, the Legislature allowed real BSA funding to decline 20%, and this funding cut directly led to larger class sizes. Excessively large class sizes force teachers into crowd management, whereas small class sizes enable more individualized instruction and provide students with the attention they need to succeed. Class sizes vary across different school districts but are far too high in all our larger districts, including Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Mat-Su, Kenai and Juneau.

The average class size for K-3 classes in Anchorage last year was 24 students, nearly 50% higher than the recommended class size of 15 students per teacher for these grades. In 2024, the Legislature added $175 million in one-time funding for schools, restoring one-half of the funds that had been cut over the previous decade. If that funding is sustained and adjusted for inflation, it will reduce the average K-3 class sizes to 23 students. Fully restoring education funding that’d been cut over the last decade would allow Anchorage School District to reduce K-12 class sizes to 20 students per classroom.

Do we want an outstanding school system, or one that is merely acceptable? At current and projected oil prices, we can afford to reduce class sizes to 15 students per teacher, which is the national best practice based on extensive data. It would mean we have a more historically normal Permanent Fund dividend of around $1,000 rather than uneven, arbitrarily large PFDs like this year’s $1,550 PFD plus an extra “energy relief” payment. Here’s the bottom line: If you want class sizes to be manageable, we can afford it, and the key policy driver is BSA funding.

Education advocates’ other top priority is pension reform. Today, Alaska has the worst retirement system in the U.S. for police officers, state troopers and teachers. As a result, we have ultra-high rates of turnover that are extremely expensive. A 2021 survey conducted by the Dunleavy administration of 15,678 current and former educators identified higher salaries, a defined benefit retirement plan, and improved health care among the most recommended solutions to improve teacher recruitment and retention. At present, Alaska is the only state that requires educators and public employees to go without full Social Security benefits or a defined-benefit retirement plan.

During budget hearings last year, legislators learned we are wasting $76 million per year in excessive costs associated with recruiting and training public employees to replace those who are leaving to work in states with more competitive benefits. Since pension reform reduces turnover costs by far more than it increases benefits, we know it will save money. However, it is equally important that pension reform will improve quality of education by retaining more experienced teachers.

Scientific studies show teachers continue to learn and become more effective through their first decade of experience. Losing teachers after three or five years of experience is devastating for education systems because our most efficient and dedicated teachers are leaving. Pension reform will extend teacher tenure and ensure Alaska students can benefit from the most experienced, effective teachers.

Fixing Alaska’s worst-in-the-nation retirement system is essential to deliver the quality in public education that our business leaders and parents deserve.

When it comes to public education, funding is essential because it drives class sizes. But funding is insufficient by itself — we also need a more efficient pension system such as the model proposed in SB 88 (Sen. Cathy Giessel, Anchorage) which passed the Senate overwhelmingly but was blocked by opponents of public education in the House majority.

Alaska has been suffering from out-migration for over a decade as we have de-funded education and plowed money into bloated PFDs. Restoring economic growth and prosperity is possible within our existing budget and without new taxes. Families, children and community health are dependent on a funded, competitive educational system. We just need to make strategic investments based on data about class sizes and modernize our pension system to be more efficient and help deliver higher educational quality.

Beth Daly Gamble is an elementary school teacher with more than two decades of experience. She lives in West Anchorage.

Nicole Brooks is a special education teacher with 8 of experience and lives in West Anchorage.

Anita Youngman is an elementary school teacher with 11 years of experience. She lives in West Anchorage.

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