By SUZANNE DOWNING
May 13, 2026 – Just one year after the Alaska Legislature approved what was the historically largest increase to the Alaska public education funding formula, the Anchorage School District is back asking lawmakers for even more.
During a Tuesday meeting, the Anchorage School Board approved a resolution urging the Alaska Legislature to permanently increase the state’s Base Student Allocation by $920 per student, significantly above last year’s historic increase.
The Base Student Allocation, or BSA, is the foundational amount the state provides per student before additional local, federal, and grant funding is added. The current state BSA stands at $6,660.
The resolution was authored in part by newly elected board members Rachel Blakeslee and Paul McDonogh, along with veteran board member Kelly Lessens. Blakeslee described the effort as a “Hail Mary” aimed at restoring positions and programs that were cut as the district attempted to close a projected $90 million deficit for Fiscal Year 2027. Some of those positions are vacant.
The resolution states that if lawmakers approve the increase by June 1, the district would reverse many planned cuts and even halt the closure of three elementary schools scheduled to shut down next year: Fire Lake Elementary, Campbell STEM Elementary, and Lake Otis Elementary.
District officials acknowledged, however, that undoing the closures this late in the process would be difficult.
ASD Chief Operating Officer Jim Anderson told the board that by late June, roughly 60% of the transition work would already be completed, including student moves and staff reassignments.
Teachers have already begun receiving new placements, and schools are in the process of packing and redistributing materials.
Still, Anderson said reversing course would not be impossible if the funding materializes quickly enough.
ASD Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt agreed that a permanent funding increase would be preferable but cautioned that the district must also prepare for the possibility that lawmakers only approve another one-time funding package instead.
That possibility may be more realistic politically.
Last year, Alaska lawmakers approved the historic $700 increase to the BSA after an intense legislative battle. Although the Legislature has been granting one-time funding increases for many years, the $700 per-student increase locks in future legislatures, regardless of resources. Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed the bill, but the Democrat-led Legislature ultimately overrode his veto to enact the increase.
Whether legislators are willing to engage in another major funding fight this year remains uncertain, especially as lawmakers continue wrestling with budget deficits, Permanent Fund Dividend debates, and inflation-driven pressures.
Voters in Anchorage just turned down two school funding measures on the April ballot. The district has lost about 14% of its students since 2010, and spends roughly $18,000 per student per year.
Board members seemed to understand during Tuesday’s meeting that restoring schools and programs remains entirely hypothetical, considering all the factors of lower enrollment and uncertain state revenues.
The resolution, which will be forwarded to legislators in Juneau, also urges Anchorage residents to contact lawmakers and advocate for additional education funding.
12 thoughts on “Anchorage School Board passes ‘Hail Mary’ resolution, seeks another major education funding boost”
These community leaders and the public can not delay Forever the inevitable of cutting programs and schools to match the district’s declining enrollment
Eventually Money has the final say
I hope before August 1000 more families decide over this summer they looked for another school option and they never sent their child back to an ASD school
The sooner ASD can get to 18000 enrollment the better it would be for them and us
It would be much better for high school fifteen-17 year olds just to leave a ASD school early get their GED, get a job and go into a trade school.
I know of the teenagers in AsD high school and junior they want to stop going to school. But it’s their parents, they force them. And they just want to leave. They already see junior high or high school is stupid and they not learning anything. There are a few more thousand Anchorage teenagers who could leave AsD for getting their GED and getting a job dropping the enrollment even further.
Why are they so against reforms and accountability of improved performance? Dunleavy has consistently offered $ with a little something from the board, our kids just continue doing poorly or leaving the ‘system’. Duh!
What they need to do is learn to live within a budget and learn contentment with what money it already receives.
This lack of contentment and these AsD leaders will say they never will have enough.
The school district recently dumped a lot of money into refurbishing lake Otis elementary. The money was spent while the ASD knew this closure was a real possibility. This is a shell game. No more money for ASD. Certainly not with the results they have produced.
This school board and Admin is incredible. They have not and will not plan for any cutbacks. They want this large deficit so the State has to bail them out. They will not cut anything thinking they will get the money they want. They won’t right size the schools, cut the admin staff, cut the union benefit for contracting. They want to scare the parents to call the State. If any of these new school board members think they were not going to have to cut something, they should resign.
They have no concept of the word ” ENOUGH “
Throwing good money after bad.
Yeah that’s the ticket Tina. Tell high school students to just leave school, get a GED, then get a job because they aren’t learning anything. Is that what you did Tina because reading your comments you sure didn’t learn anything in English class – right? You couldn’t put two cohesive sentences together if someone paid you. I guess that’s why you depend on AI for all of the responses that you post on here and even then you can’t get those right. Suzanne, I wish you would give her a “one response” only for each story. It sure would save a lot of headaches for the rest of us. (just a thought mind you).
ASD has one of the highest per student budgets in the country, a graduation rate that’s in the toilet even though they
ll graduate a student who can’t read at a 4th grade level.
IT ISN’T A FUNDING PROBLEM.