OPINION: Legislature must support schools for economic growth

A good public school system is essential to recruit and retain the workforce and have a growing economy. As business owners, we are beyond frustrated that the Legislature fell a single vote short of overriding the governor’s veto of education funding. As a result, in mid-October, the Anchorage School District is releasing a list of schools proposed for closure. The inability to provide stable funding for schools is the primary driver of economic malaise and outmigration in Alaska. When you go vote this November, we urge you to vote for legislators who have the wisdom to support schools and the courage to override vetoes when necessary.

CNBC recently released its rankings of the best states in the U.S. for business. Alaska was ranked 48th. The top state was Virginia, and the No. 1 reason it was ranked highly was support for public schools and small class sizes. According to CNBC, Virginia averages 18 kids per classroom, a reasonable number that allows high-quality and individualized instruction. Compare those very reasonable class sizes to the massive class sizes in Anchorage and all other urban districts. There are dozens of elementary, middle and high school classes in ASD with more than 30 students. In many classrooms, there isn’t enough space that each student can have a desk. How on Earth are businesses able to recruit and retain a workforce when families look at our schools and see such massive class sizes?

Under our Alaska Constitution, the Legislature has a duty to fund a public school system that is accessible to all students. For most of the last decade, the Legislature allowed school funding to fall every year. This year, the Senate’s bipartisan majority caucus finally prioritized school funding and, bridging party divides, advanced legislation to restore half the funding that’d been cut over the previous decade. Fixing half a cut is not nearly enough, but it was the first positive step in years. Even though nearly every legislator voted for this legislation, when the governor vetoed it just enough Republicans flip-flopped to sustain the veto. By a single vote, the Legislature failed to provide predictable funding for schools.

We applaud those legislators who went right back to work and restored $175 million in the budget. However, one-time funding leaves our schools in the untenable position of having no idea how much funding they will have from year to year. As a result, the Anchorage School District is forced to consider the closure of beloved neighborhood schools. Make no mistake: The single best way for Alaska to lock itself into an economic death spiral is to start closing neighborhood schools, effectively telling families with kids to pack their bags and move to some other state with pro-growth public policy.

This year is a make-or-break election for our state’s economic future. As business leaders, we urge you to vote for pro-education legislators who will fund our schools and vote to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes if necessary. It is past time to restore stability to our education system and get Alaska back on track with economic growth.

Rachel Pennington, Jimmy and Mary Miner, Elissa Brown and Max Kubitz are parents and business owners in Anchorage.

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