On Wednesday, Oct. 8, the State Board of Education will decide whether to adopt a regulation that threatens to rip away critical services for our children and for families across Alaska. The danger is immediate, and the consequences could be devastating.
Here is the truth: Alaska is the only state still bound by a federal requirement called the disparity test. Earlier this year, the state failed that test. Rather than fix the real problem of inadequate school funding, the Alaska education commissioner rushed forward with an emergency plan for the state board to tighten the local contribution limit — the amount of resources a community can provide the local school district.
If this proposed regulation passes, communities like Anchorage will be punished for doing the very things that keep kids safe, engaged and supported. You could lose school buses that get children to class. You could lose school resource officers who protect students in our buildings. You could lose pre-K programs that give kids a strong start. You could lose snowplowing that keeps critical school routes open in winter. You could lose partnerships with nonprofits that provide counseling and health care in the midst of a mental health crisis among our youth.
[Related news coverage: After outrage and legal threats, Alaska education board pauses new limits on local funding for public schools]
No one can even tell you exactly what will be taken away. By design, the proposed regulation is vague and does not actually give districts guidance. It mentions “in-kind services” but never defines them. Even budget experts cannot say with certainty which programs or services would be compromised or cut and cannot advise policymakers on how to manage the potential consequences. This uncertainty is the imminent danger.
What is certain is this: the tighter the cap, the more existing programs and services vanish. In Anchorage alone, more than $15 million a year in direct and in-kind education supports are at risk. If this rule passes, those investments, and others across Alaska, could be stripped out of school budgets. Students, families and teachers will be left to pay the bills ultimate price.
These are false choices for districts and communities. We should not be forced to choose between pre-K, early literacy, student mental health supports and safe transportation, or between school safety and school-based health care. The state has created this crisis by failing to meet its responsibility to fund education, and now it wants to remove local control and ask all of us to bear the cost.
This idea has been tried before, and Alaskans rejected it. Parents, educators and community leaders said clearly: we need more investment in schools, not less. Yet here we are again, days away from a vote that could take our schools backward.
Don’t stay silent. You only have days left to act. On Oct. 8, the board will decide whether to rip programs and services out of your schools. Email eed.stateboard@alaska.gov with the subject line “Proposed Changes to Local Contributions Regulation.” Tell them Alaska’s students deserve more, not less.
The danger is real, and the deadline is almost here.
Christopher Constant is chair of the Anchorage Assembly. Anna Brawley is vice chair of the Assembly. Carl Jacobs is president of the Anchorage School Board. Margo Bellamy is vice president of the School Board.
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