On Tuesday, Anchorage School Board members met again and surely discussed ideas to close a $68 million budget deficit. Ideas include permanently dismantling renowned and effective language immersion programs and shuttering beloved neighborhood schools.
Why are kids and parents in the most populous city in this resource-rich state in the most prosperous country on Earth left begging for the status quo on education? In a time of historic inflation, why aren’t our state legislators and governor investing enough in students around the state — only a 0.5% increase in the base student allocation over eight years — to keep up with even normal rates of inflation?
For its part, ASD should prioritize programs with good educational outcomes that have proven effective, like language immersion. Our state just passed out more than $2 billion to individual citizens, but is telling our next generation the state is too poor to inflation-proof investments in them. Without investment in children today, there will be no return on investment tomorrow.
— Christopher Sis
Anchorage
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