Student proficiency has followed student allocations downward. After legislators shrank the value of base student allocations by more than one-fifth starting in 2008, some 2,000 out of 9,000 teachers disappeared from classrooms in Alaska. Then the ratio of students-to-teachers skyrocketed and is among the highest in the country. When classroom sizes ballooned, instruction deteriorated. By 2015, student proficiency rates were plunging. Now students are behind by about one year’s worth of learning. See the charts and make up your own mind.
After legislators steadily starved classrooms of teachers for 16 years, at least 5,400 students aging out of school each year now don’t meet the state’s own standards for reading, math and science. For good outcomes, let’s get back to smaller classrooms.
— Mike Bronson, Anchorage
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.