OPINION: Time to focus on the kids, not school buildings

We all want our kids to have the best chance of success in life. Our public schools play a vital role in that outcome. Unfortunately, we are hobbling our kids’ academic opportunities by allocating far too many of our nation-leading education dollars to facilities. We continue to see the emphasis placed on facilities, not on educational outcomes.

I first became aware of this a few years ago, when the current Clark Middle School building was constructed. The per-square-foot cost of the new middle school exceeded the per-square-foot cost of the Anchorage VA Medical Center, which was built around the same time. How is that possible? At that time, the justification was that the fancy school facility was needed in order to improve student outcomes. Here we are, a dozen years later, still waiting for the promised improved educational outcomes.

Perhaps these actions would make sense if our student population was rapidly growing. But it’s not; Anchorage School District (ASD) enrollment peaked 20 years ago at about 50,000 students. Fall 2021 enrollment for ASD was below 40,000 (when accounting for charter school enrollment). The last time ASD had fewer than 40,000 kids in ASD school buildings was 39 years ago, in 1983. Current ASD demographic projections indicate this trend will continue for some time. In fact, the latest ASD Capital Improvement Plan expects enrollment will drop by another 5,000 students by 2027.

With the rapid drop in student enrollment in the last 20 years, you would think there would be a corresponding drop in facilities. However, you would be wrong. The opposite has unexplainably happened. Since 1983, the last time we had so few students, the total size of ASD facilities has grown by 49.2%, a whopping 2.6 million square feet of extra space. Using a conservative number of $25 per square foot per year for heat, light, and maintenance, the additional space costs $65 million a year. When the extra cost of principal and interest are added in for this added footprint, the total additional cost to the residents of Anchorage is around $95 million a year.

Why are Anchorage residents footing a $95 million dollar bill for unneeded space, when student educational outcomes desperately need improvement? Alaska is ranked dead last in the U.S. in national reading scores for both low-income and upper/middle-income students. And before you think that the rest of the state is dragging ASD scores down, guess again; ASD is ranked 22nd in the state in language arts out of 54 school districts.

Imagine what could happen if that $95 million dollars in facilities costs (over $2,000 per student or a $34,000 raise per classroom teacher with ASD average class size of 17 students per teacher) was redirected every year to improve student outcomes by retaining and attracting top teaching talent. ASD’s Proposition 1 facilities bond mailer includes the tagline “All of Our Children.” It’s time for ASD to focus on the “Children” by spending more money in the classroom and not on fancy spacious buildings. Join me in voting no on Proposition 1.

Jodi Taylor is an Alaska Policy Forum board member, a lifelong Alaskan who attended public school, an entrepreneur at heart, and mother of five children.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.