{"id":42220,"date":"2019-01-28T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/heres-how-dunleavys-proposed-education-cuts-would-affect-juneau-schools\/"},"modified":"2019-01-28T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T21:30:00","slug":"heres-how-dunleavys-proposed-education-cuts-would-affect-juneau-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/heres-how-dunleavys-proposed-education-cuts-would-affect-juneau-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s how Dunleavy’s proposed education cuts would affect Juneau schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced a supplemental budget proposal Monday<\/a> that would cut the extra $20 million for schools approved by last year’s legislature for this year.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty unnerving to be in a position where you’re in the middle of the operating year and to have the fiscal outlook change,” said Juneau School District Superintendent Bridget <\/a>Weiss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Weiss said that the school board is pretty used to preparing for year-to-year variances in the budget, but to have a drastic cut in the middle of the operating year is tough.<\/p>\n

[Capitol Live: Gov proposes cutting $20M of already-approved education funding]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n

According to documents provided by the Department of Education and Early Development, $671,008 would be cut from Juneau School District’s budget if the proposed legislation passes.<\/p>\n

“Once we have a legislative decision, and then in August get our final enrollment, we kind of go about our business and start operating and focusing on the education of our <\/a>kids<\/a>,” Weiss said. “Mid-year, to now be looking at how we undo planning, it’s a challenge.”<\/p>\n

Each year, school districts across the state build their budgets based on revenue and enrollment assumptions. This year, those assumptions included the $20 million that was appropriated and approved last June.<\/p>\n

“Last year, the Senate and House put aside partisanship and crafted an education budget that responded to public demand for increased education resources,” said Sen. Tom Begich, D-Anchorage in a press release. “Local schools and communities have been hit hard with the high cost of energy and the lack of inflation-proofing of our funding formula. The actions of the Governor send our education system backward, something our schools can’t afford.”<\/p>\n

Begich said in the annual Senate Majority survey of Alaskans, 51 percent responded identifying education funding as too low, while only 14 percent identified it as being too high.<\/p>\n

“For us halfway through our fiscal year to be looking at adjustments is very unusual,” Weiss said. “It certainly adds a different level of financial stress and pressure at a time of year we are normally focusing on the education of our kids.”<\/p>\n

When asked where the school district might look at making those hundred-thousand dollar cuts if the proposed budget passes, Weiss said, “There aren’t any easy answers.”<\/p>\n

\n

\u2022 Contact reporter Mollie Barnes at mbarnes@juneauempire.com or 523-2228.<\/b><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘It’s unnerving,’ says superintendent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":42221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[75,230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-42220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-local-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42220"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}