School Funding Plans Outlined by Stedman

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Created on Friday, 24 May 2024 15:12

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Sen. Bert Stedman counts the $680 per student funding increase for schools and the $2 million for the purchase of Stratton Library for a courthouse as among the successes of the legislative session that wrapped up business last week.
    “I think it’s unlikely there will be a veto of that ($680) amount,” the District A Republican senator said Thursday. “It passes the red-face test.” Gov. Dunleavy a year ago vetoed a bill with the same funding increase earlier in the session.
    Stedman said he’s hoping that next year the Legislature will take on bigger questions related to education, including teacher salaries and flat enrollment.
    Stedman spoke to the Sentinel after the 33rd Legislature passed a budget and adjourned. Stedman is the Senate Finance Committee co-chair, responsible for the operations side of the budget.
    In addition to the one-time BSA funding increase, the budget has more funds for the Alaska READS Act and student transportation.
    “Some districts don’t need that much, and some need more, so we’ve asked in the operating budget language for the districts to submit some financial data back to us in October and again in January,” Stedman said.
    But the session’s funding increases for schools don’t solve underlying problems of flat and declining enrollment over the past 23 years, and the need to increase teacher salaries to keep up with the cost of living.
    The Matanuska-Susitna School District is the only one gaining students, and Sitka has seen a 30 percent drop since 2000, which means less per-student funding from the state.
    “Next year, rather than seeing the Legislature getting wrapped around the axle of the BSA and $680, we need to start having conversations around salaries, to attract and retain teachers,” Stedman said. “In my limited review it looks to me they are about 20 percent low ... meaning we would have to raise salaries 20 percent across the board to get them on par with the Alaska cost of living.”
     A planned study by the administration will look at salaries, which will be followed by conversations about how the state and communities can cover the cost. The high vacancy rate in teaching positions across the state tracks with state agency vacancies, which are at about 20% “when they shouldn’t be below 10,” Stedman said.
    Noting the escalation of real estate prices, which compound the problems of teacher recruitment and retention, Stedman is working on solutions to the related problem of housing.
    The Legislature approved $4 million this year for Alaska Housing Finance Corporation to work with the University of Alaska, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Alaska Mental Health trust Authority to subdivide land and pay for roads and utilities to bring down the overall cost of development.
    “We’ll try to get a couple of subdivisions going, and see how it works,” Stedman said. In Sitka he listed the university land trust site in Thimbleberry Bay as one example of where this could be tried.
    He said the $2 million for the court system to purchase the Stratton Library from the state Department of Education could allow the building to be used as an office for Supreme Court justice Jude Pate and storage and display of Kaagwaantaan clan property currently housed elsewhere.
    There is no specific funding for the Katlian Bay Road, which needs an estimated $20 million to complete, and $7 million more for bridges.
    “There was no appropriation for Katlian, but that’s not new or unexpected, but there is funds available if the Department of Transportation decides to move forward, and finish it,” Stedman said. “There’s already appropriated funds available.”
    He still believes it is an important and worthwhile project, with the potential to open up land for many purposes, particularly if funds can be secured for power lines.
    “I’m not only looking at Katlian, but I want to have discussions with the city on lining the tunnel at Blue Lake” to increase Sitka’s power generating ability, he said. “We have a unique opportunity in front of us on a silver platter, to move our energy and distribution forward with the Railbelt or be left out in the cold.”
    Stedman said the state is taking advantage of funds available to invest over $1 billion in the Railbelt power intertie, connecting Fairbanks to Kenai hydropower at Bradley Lake. He said funding for a Sitka electric project could be folded into the appropriations process.
    Stedman said he’s following a project under way in Ketchikan and Whittier that would allow cruise ships to plug into city hydropower instead of burning fuel while in port.
    “It includes some generation enhancements and distribution improvements – which is a new substation,” he said. “We’re trying to lower the carbon footprint. Sitka’s probably in the second tier of this endeavor to plug in cruise ships to shore power. ... Juneau, Whittier and Ketchikan are the prime targets to start.”
    Juneau installed the first system in the state to allow a cruise ship to connect to shore power.
    A few more positive developments this year included increasing funding for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, which will be required to create a three-year marketing plan. Also under fisheries is the establishment of a task force to address current marketing challenges.
    This budget also includes $20 million for a “backstop” to cover operations of the Alaska Marine Highway, but Stedman said the bigger issue in the ferry system is the difficulty of finding workers.
    On a side note, Stedman said he’s pleased lawmakers were able to sidetrack the attempt by the Alaska Permanent Fund Division board to set up a second office in Anchorage. Opponents saw this as a symptom of “capital creep,” and a state office working outside the legislative process.
    Stedman’s solution was a $100 appropriation to close the office, and remove the stipend for meetings from the PFD board budget.
    “If they had gone through the budget process, and come out of it with an office for Anchorage, that would have been one thing,” the senator said. “But they need to respect the appropriation powers of the Legislature one way or another.”

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