Two Alaska faculty districts filed a lawsuit on Jan. 20 in Anchorage Superior Courtroom towards the state, its governor and its schooling commissioner over what they are saying is a long-running failure to adequately fund public schooling.
Within the grievance, the Kuspuk Faculty District and the Fairbanks North Star Borough Faculty District argue “the state is failing to fulfill its constitutional obligation” to offer Alaska college students “a sound primary schooling and significant alternative for proficiency” in important topics, and to fund colleges and college districts sufficiently to do this.
The plaintiffs are looking for to power the state to meet its constitutional obligation and requesting a court-ordered research to find out what it prices to coach college students.
“Alaska, we don’t imagine, has ever carried out an adequacy research to essentially perceive what it will take to permit Alaska college students a good alternative to be taught the abilities they should take part and contribute to society,” mentioned Matt Singer, a trial lawyer representing the plaintiffs. “For those who don’t know what one thing goes to price, then you possibly can’t have a dialog with the Legislature about fund it.”
The lawsuit factors to the results of power underfunding: low proficiency check scores; reductions in educating employees; and the elimination of superb arts in addition to profession technical and vocational teaching programs. It additionally cites harmful situations inside faculty buildings.
During the last yr, KYUK, NPR and ProPublica have spotlighted poor health and safety conditions inside many rural school buildings across Alaska. The reporting confirmed how the state has largely ignored hundreds of requests from rural faculty districts to repair deteriorating buildings and that a few of the worst situations exist at state-owned colleges.
Kuspuk Superintendent Madeline Aguillard mentioned that since Gov. Mike Dunleavy took workplace in 2018, he had put little cash towards schooling. “That’s virtually a decade of simply beginning at nothing, and when you must claw your technique to even lower than minimal funding, that takes a toll,” mentioned Aguillard.
A spokesperson with the governor’s workplace referred questions concerning the lawsuit to the state Division of Legislation.
“The accountable path is laws — not litigation,” Division of Legislation spokesperson Sam Curtis wrote in an e-mail.
The schooling clause in Alaska’s structure doesn’t specify a greenback quantity for schooling. As a substitute, wrote Curtis, the structure “vests the ability of the purse squarely within the Legislature and the Governor. The legislative session started at this time. That’s the place schooling coverage and funding selections are supposed to be debated and resolved.”
It’s not a coincidence the go well with was filed on the identical day legislators convened in Juneau for this yr’s legislative session, mentioned Fairbanks Superintendent Luke Meinert. “I feel it sends the message that the work on schooling funding is just not carried out,” mentioned Meinert.
Schooling Commissioner Deena Bishop didn’t reply to a request for remark. A spokesperson for her division additionally referred inquiries to Alaska’s Division of Legislation. Previous to her appointment as commissioner, Bishop was superintendent of the Anchorage Faculty District, the state’s largest. In that place, Bishop persistently advocated for elevated state funding for public colleges by means of a change to Alaska’s schooling funding method. As commissioner, Bishop has mentioned her division is just not accountable for allocating funds for schooling. “The levers that I can pull aren’t levers for funding,” Bishop mentioned in a 2024 interview. “I don’t create the cash. The Legislature creates that, however we are able to definitely assist coverage that may assist assist colleges as their wants come up.”
Caroline Storm, government director of the Coalition for Schooling Fairness, an Alaska-based nonprofit group representing faculty districts and their management that’s serving to finance the lawsuit, mentioned years of advocacy from her group and others merely “hasn’t moved the needle sufficient” within the state to pay for wide-ranging wants from curriculum to constructing upkeep. She mentioned the shortage of economic assist for public schooling must be central to this yr’s election cycle.
Alaska’s public colleges obtain funding from two state budgets. Capital funds pay for constructing upkeep, upgrades and development. Cash for operations, sometimes called the Base Pupil Allocation, buys issues like textbooks and pays for academics’ salaries. In line with the grievance, Alaska allotted $5,800 per pupil in 2015. Over a decade, the quantity had risen to $5,960, considerably lower than the speed of inflation.
In all regards, Singer mentioned, the state is failing. “To be able to present a primary sound schooling, you want loads of various things,” he mentioned. “One of many issues is a protected faculty constructing with a roof and heater. One other factor you want is a reliable instructor standing in entrance of a classroom educating younger folks.”
After years of comparatively flat state funding for colleges amid rising operational prices, Alaska lawmakers throughout the 2025 legislative session passed a $700 enhance to the BSA, then gained sufficient assist to override Dunleavy’s veto of the bipartisan schooling invoice — and later overrode his veto of $50 million in schooling funding from the finances. Lately, lawmakers have been at odds with Dunleavy, who has blamed declining enrollment on faculty closures and who has additionally known as for a statewide open enrollment system and for coverage adjustments to learn constitution colleges.
Whereas advocates celebrated the funding enhance, many schooling leaders have mentioned it nonetheless falls in need of what faculty districts have to successfully function, and the plaintiffs within the lawsuit mentioned the rise was “woefully inadequate to maintain tempo with inflation, which had eroded buying energy by 37% within the previous decade.” There are greater than 50 faculty districts in Alaska, and most are positioned inside cities or organized boroughs, which have entry to native tax income to assist fund schooling. However 19 are virtually totally reliant on the state for funds as a result of they serve rural, unincorporated communities the place cash from native taxes is just not accessible. Dozens of these rural faculty buildings are owned by the state education department, together with within the Kuspuk district, which covers an space in Western Alaska that’s roughly the scale of Maryland.
State evaluation knowledge on pupil efficiency throughout the Kuspuk district is “dire,” based on the authorized grievance. The numbers present that 90% of the district’s 330 college students throughout the 2024-25 faculty yr weren’t proficient in English language arts, math or science. Aguillard, the superintendent, mentioned power underfunding from the state is having an outsized impression on districts like hers, the place the scholar inhabitants is predominantly Indigenous. She mentioned these college students additionally undergo as a result of her district has needed to pull funds from its operational finances to maintain buildings open. That cash has gone to repair failing plumbing and hearth suppression programs and to assist restore issues with constructing foundations and leaky roofs.
Earlier this month, Aguillard bought phrase from an architect that a lot of the joists that maintain up the roof of the college health club in Aniak are damaged. “We’re closing the high school immediately and starting plans to demolish earlier than it collapses,” she wrote in a textual content message. Within the final three years, consultants have mentioned at least three buildings in her district should not be occupied.
This winter, a chronic and excessive chilly snap meant that eight of the Kuspuk district’s 9 buildings couldn’t open in time for college kids to return from the vacation break as a result of there was no working water, warmth or electrical energy. Nearly all of the buildings within the district are owned by Alaska’s schooling division.
“It’s unsettling,” Aguillard mentioned. “Our buildings shouldn’t be shutting down so simply. It’s actually simply proof of the decline of the capability of these buildings.”
Dozens of research cited by the U.S. Environmental Safety Company on its web site spotlight the adverse results of poor maintenance and conditions inside schools on student performance. The investigation discovered black mould inside a number of Alaska colleges. Publicity can enhance the chance of bronchial asthma and is linked to greater charges of absenteeism. In line with the company, leaking roofs and issues with heating and air flow also can impression tutorial efficiency.
The state of affairs isn’t distinctive to rural faculty districts, nevertheless. In an interview, Meinert, the Fairbanks superintendent, described the tangible impression a $5 million finances deficit has had in his district, one of many three largest within the state.
Within the final 5 years, seven colleges in his district have closed resulting from a finances shortfall. Since 2019, Meinert mentioned, his district has terminated greater than 300 educating positions, which implies class sizes have swelled to greater than double what the Nationwide Middle for Schooling Statistics reported for the state 5 years in the past, typically topping 40 college students in a classroom.
Meinert contends {that a} lack of state monetary assist inside his district can be disproportionately impacting the minority pupil inhabitants. State assessments present that greater than 76% of Indigenous and economically deprived college students within the district are usually not proficient in English language arts.
