Deep dive: Let's be honest about Dunleavy's two-tier education system.
Behind all the rhetoric that neighborhood schools must do the impossible with less, what Dunleavy is proposing is a system that funnels what little funding he will support to the few — while leaving everyone else to fight over the scraps.
It's Monday, Alaska! I'm under the weather, but feeling motivated nonetheless!
In this edition: The House's education funding bill could be headed to a vote this week. It will almost certainly generate pushback from Dunleavy Republicans who insist that policy, not funding, is the solution to Alaska's public educational woes — as if the chronic underfunding of public schools hasn't been a policy. In this edition, let's take the first of a two-part deep dive into the governor's education proposals and how they would worsen the existing gap between those who already have the means and everyone else.
Current mood: 🤒
Let's be honest. Dunleavy's proposing a two-tier education system.
The first month and a half of Alaska’s legislative session has painted a grim and frustrating picture surrounding public education. A newly elected set of bipartisan majorities is looking to break through nearly a decade of status-quo indecision that's starved Alaska’s public schools to deliver a massive boost to education funding. Still, that effort faces two significant challenges: Alaska’s ongoing financial woes and Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s stubborn efforts to leverage much-needed funding for a slate of less-than-popular policy changes.
Dunleavy and his allies have screeched against any effort to increase the state’s per-student funding formula, arguing that they need to see accountability and reforms before they throw schools a much-needed lifeline. We heard many Dunleavy Republicans make that case two weeks ago when the education bill, HB69, cleared two committee assignments, and will likely hear more of it on the House floor before the vote.
As legislators have unpacked Dunleavy's way, it’s become apparent that it continues the state's path toward a two-tier education system. As a renewed lawsuit challenging the seemingly unconstitutional exploitation of the state's homeschool allotments shows, the public education system under six years of Dunleavy delivers vastly inequitable student opportunities.
I think it's critical that we understand where the governor's policies are leading us before we get mired in hollow talk about test scores and flawed studies.
Behind all the rhetoric that neighborhood schools must do more with less, what Dunleavy proposes is a system that funnels what little funding he will support to the few — while leaving everyone else to fight over the scraps.
Let’s take a deep dive.
