Dear Editor: The following letter was submitted to the Alaska State Board of Education (eed.stateboard@alaska.gov) on July 15. I encourage all Sitkans to become educated and voice their opinions on this deeply concerning matter.
Dear Alaska State Board of Education and Early Development: When I go to the DEED website, it reads “A Shared Commitment. Meeting Alaska’s Education Challenge Together.” As I start my 30th year of teaching in Sitka next month, I want to feel like you are meeting this challenge with me and my colleagues and doing everything in your power to support the students of Alaska.
However, the recent moves to change rules around how municipalities can financially support their struggling districts makes me feel like instead we are having the rug pulled out from under us. In short, I urge you to oppose the proposed regulation changing local contribution rules.
There is no argument that Alaska schools have challenges, that student learning can and should improve, and that teachers can do better. There is also no question that Alaska is not funding their public schools adequately. Inflation has changed the cost of education, and the BSA has not come close to keeping up. Yet another indicator that we have let education funding lapse is that Alaska is the only state in the country to use the federal “impact aid” money ($81 million this year) as a replacement for state education funding, rather than an additive. In fact, it is because of THIS that the state must pass the “disparity test”—not that municipalities are funding “outside the cap!”
Because Alaska’s education funding has eroded over many years, we have been up against this “disparity test” in the past. Four short years ago, in 2021, DEED successfully appealed when Alaska failed the “disparity test.” Until state education funding is fixed, why is appealing not the course of action?
It is alarming that municipalities feel the need to fund “outside the cap.” But this is not an indication that these cities are looking to give their children an unfair advantage. Instead, it indicates that they are doing all they can when the decreased BSA ties their hands –in fact, the “cap” amount is dictated by the BSA, so even that has eroded due to inflation!
The bottom line is this: Alaska’s schools are starving for funds. Municipalities see it first-hand. They are the place that districts go to beg for their bread and butter. Because the state limits what cities can give with the “cap,” creative people have found ways to feed our starving districts—much like one might grow a garden, pick berries, or harvest subsistence fish. This is the Alaskan way. Can it really be that our own Department of Education and Early Development will take away more funds because of our grass-roots efforts to support our schools? I hope not. I look forward to August when I will do my part to Meet Alaska’s Education Challenge. I hope I am not doing it without the support of the very department that is charged with that goal.
Sincerely,
Susan Brandt-Ferguson, Sitka
