Gov. Dunleavy introduces education legislation he says aims to tackle school policy reforms

Gov. Mike Dunleavy discusses his new proposed omnibus education legislation at a news conference on Jan. 31, 2025. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy introduced an omnibus education bill on Friday, which he said would tackle both education policy reforms and expanded funding for specific programs.

“I’m hopeful,” Dunleavy said at a news conference Friday unveiling the bill. “That we can get an education package done, and I’m hoping we can get it done early, so that the school districts, parents, teachers, kids, everybody knows what we’re looking at.”

The education proposal, House Bill 76 and Senate Bill 82, includes expanding per-pupil funding for correspondence and residential school students and career and technical training, as well as for transportation. It would provide incentive grants for reading programs, and lump sum payments ranging from $5,000-$15,000 each year for three years to teachers to improve retention and recruitment.

Dunleavy said policies should be changed along with funding.

“​​We take care of funding, and there’s never a conversation about policy,” Dunleavy said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a bait and switch. There’s no reason why we can’t do both.”

The proposed legislation would support expanding school choice, he said, a major priority of the governor’s administration over his two terms. It would allow for students to enroll in any school statewide without tuition, including neighborhood schools, charter schools and correspondence programs.

The bill would expand the creation of charter schools, by allowing the state, or local municipalities or university system to authorize new charter schools. Dunleavy said there are waitlists for charter schools, which shows high interest. “A lot of your public school districts aren’t authorizing enough charter schools, so we would like the Department of Education to do it,” he said. 

The proposal would also require school districts to adopt policies to ban the use of cell phones during school hours, with some exceptions for specific needs.

The bill would provide $117 million in funding for next year, said Lacey Sanders, the director of the governor’s Office of Management and Budget. Starting in 2026, that would increase up to $181 million with the lump sum payments for teachers, she added. 

But it isn’t clear that the governor has sufficient support to pass his education bill.

The bill competes with House legislation which seeks to increase the funding formula for all students, based on inflation. It would do that through the core of the formula, known as the base student allocation.

This week, hundreds of Alaskans called, emailed and spoke in support during public comment periods of the House and Senate Education committees, urging support for lawmakers to approve the BSA increase for the next three years. 

“I’m not interested in trading policy for increasing the BSA,” said Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka, who sponsored the bill, and co-chairs the House Education Committee. “The reason is, we need to fund our schools. We need to breathe some oxygen back into the system, and then we can go ahead and look at all kinds of policy.” 

If passed, House Bill 69 would provide adjustments for inflation, and add $1,000 next school year, as well as two increases of $404 each in the following two years. 

The BSA has increased by $280 since July 2010, from $5,680 to $5,960, a 4.9% increase, while inflation grew by 45% over the same period.

“There’s a lot we can do in education. I don’t think anyone questions that or doubts that,” Himschoot said. “So in that way, I’m aligned with the governor. We have some things to do. At the same time, we cannot starve the schools for basically 15 years, and then point at them and say, ‘look, they’re failing.’ I refuse to do that.” 

Dunleavy also highlighted new national standardized testing data on Friday, adding urgency to the education funding debate. The National Assessment of Education Progress is a national standardized test administered to fourth and eighth grade students. For Alaska, it showed students scored well below average in math and reading, and had no significant progress in performance from 2022 to 2024. Over half, roughly 53%, of fourth graders tested scored below “basic” in reading. 

On the Senate side, lawmakers also are urging a boost to the BSA as a first priority.

“Years of flat funding and high inflation has pushed our public education system into crisis,” Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said in a statement on Friday. “The Senate Majority is focused on turning this around by crafting legislation that not only provides schools with the resources they need, but also provides opportunities to improve outcomes. To be at the top of any list, you need high-quality teachers and educational opportunities for students.”

The governor’s education bill was referred to the House and Senate education committees to be heard in the coming weeks.