Although mistakes were made in calculating the Juneau School District’s budget this year, I believe much of the anger is misplaced.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Braun wrote in an Anchorage Daily News editorial, “Why do we have a better funding plan for Alaska’s prisons than its schools?” (Jan. 22, 2024), “While legislators seem to accept the concept of inflation-proofing for road maintenance, and our prison system and fisheries management, when it comes to our schools, they balk: the BSA, the foundation of the K-12 budget, was frozen from fiscal year 2016 to 2024, when it was raised by a half percent – it was 1% until Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed half the increase.”<\/p>\n
According to the Alaska Council of School Administrators, “The administration’s veto, combined with prolonged flat funding, historic inflation, and increasing costs in health care, transportation, operations, and maintenance, results in a loss of purchasing power that schools cannot sustain while keeping achievement high and meeting accountability requirements such as the Alaska Reads Act. Adjusted for inflation, schools need an increase of $1,413 in the BSA to match inflation since FY17.”<\/p>\n
If the state had inflation-proofed the BSA yearly, the Juneau School District would be much closer to a balanced budget and most proposed dramatic cuts would not be necessary.<\/p>\n
A recent article in the Anchorage Daily News (Jan. 21, 2024) stated; “Facing $98M deficit, Anchorage School Board begins to narrow down potential cuts.” So, Anchorage, with about nine times Juneau’s population, is facing a K-12 education budget deficit more than ten times the size of Juneau’s. I have heard other Alaska school districts are also facing budget crises.<\/p>\n
This appears to be a statewide school funding crisis! I suggest we redirect our frustrations to convince the Governor and skeptical legislators that inflation-proofing the education base student allocation is long overdue.<\/p>\n
Gov. Dunleavy could help alleviate this problem by submitting a supplemental BSA inflation increase to the Legislature. It could include a statement that assumed school districts’ efficiencies were overestimated.<\/p>\n
Mark S. Johnson<\/p>\n
Juneau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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