‘We don’t have an agreement’: All eyes on Dunleavy on the eve of education veto deadline

JUNEAU — State senators and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have failed to reach a new education agreement, which leaves the fate of the Legislature’s bipartisan education package up to the governor.

Senate Bill 140 includes the largest nominal school-funding boost in state history; additional funding for home-schooled and correspondence students; and funding for eligible schools to increase their internet speeds.

The governor has until midnight Thursday to sign or veto the education bill or it will automatically become law without his signature.

Dunleavy had threatened to veto the education bill one day after it passed the Legislature on a combined 56-3 vote. He called the bill a “three-legged horse,” and said it should have included provisions he proposed to pay bonuses to teachers and to expand access to charter schools.

In the following two weeks, none of Dunleavy’s education priorities have passed either legislative chamber.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, said he met with Dunleavy on Monday and Tuesday evening to try to craft a good-faith education agreement and avoid a veto. The negotiations were not successful.

“We don’t have an agreement,” Wielechowski said Wednesday. “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”

The main sticking point has been on charter schools, he said. Dunleavy has wanted a statewide board he appoints to have the power to authorize new charter schools, potentially over the objections of local school districts.

Kodiak Republican Senate President Gary Stevens, a former school board president, has been vehemently opposed to that change with concerns it would curtail local control.

Wielechowski said at a Wednesday news conference that creating significantly more charter schools in Alaska would require substantial conversations by legislators, including how school funding could be pulled away from neighborhood schools.

Soldotna Republican Rep. Justin Ruffridge said he and multiple other legislators were invited to talk to the governor one-on-one Wednesday about the education package. He said Dunleavy seemed to be taking the temperature of the Legislature on the bill, and that there were discussions about what other education measures could potentially pass by the end of the session.

Ruffridge, who said he has publicly and personally supported SB 140, said he did not know whether Dunleavy would veto or approve the bill.

Anchorage GOP Rep. Craig Johnson, who supported a rejected education bill that was stacked with Republican priorities, also said he didn’t know what Dunleavy would do with SB 140.

“Wait and see,” he said.

During his Feb. 27 news conference, Dunleavy signaled that he was prepared to use his line-item veto power to reduce education funding from the budget. Stevens said that second looming veto threat remained unresolved from meetings with the governor this week.

If Dunleavy vetoes SB 140, the Senate president said lawmakers are planning to meet Monday in a joint session to consider a veto override. It remains unclear if the required two-thirds of legislators would vote to overturn Dunleavy’s veto for the measure to become law.