The Dunleavy Decline: a legacy that's left Alaska's students behind

Yahoo

20-05-2025

An empty classroom at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé in Juneau, Alaska (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon)
Gov. Mike Dunleavy's veto of the latest education funding bill, House Bill 57, following his recent veto of House Bill 69, cements the decline of Alaska's public education system as the hallmark of his administration.
Dunleavy has been notably absent from debates and legislative negotiations on education. Even Sen. James Kaufman criticized his failure to advocate for his own education policy priorities. All we're left with is his record to sort though — and it speaks volumes.
For more than a decade, Dunleavy has worked to undermine the foundation of our schools. Brick by brick, budget by budget, he has led a systematic campaign to weaken public education in our state.
Two key inflection points brought us here:
2014: The Legislature passed legislation by then-Sen. Dunleavy allowing correspondence school funds to be used for private school tuition. This opened the door to a steady redirection of public money toward private benefit, and the shunting of millions of dollars from our public schools.
2018-2025: As governor, Dunleavy froze the base student allocation and has kept it virtually flat through threats and vetoes, effectively starving education budgets year after year as costs rose. This has placed schools under incredible financial strain, compounded by the diversion of public dollars away from public schools.
The results of these policy choices are staggering:
From 2014 to 2024, over $580 million in public funds were diverted from neighborhood schools through correspondence allotments. The graph below shows Alaska's annual correspondence program spending over the past two decades, charting both our estimate of the average as well as maximum per-student allotments. A sharp increase in this spending began in 2018, the same year Gov. Dunleavy started flat-funding public education.
While many families choose correspondence programs to homeschool their children — a valuable option for some — the lack of oversight has allowed public funds to serve as de facto vouchers for private and religious schools. Though this practice is now under legal challenge, the data shown here reflects the decade it was permitted. Further, it is unclear what results we are getting for this investment, because only about 12% of correspondence students take standardized tests.
In the graph, the blue line estimates annual state spending on correspondence allotments assuming each enrolled student received the estimated average allotment. The orange line assumes the maximum allotment per student. Together, they illustrate the range of public dollars funneled into the correspondence program with little accountability for their use.
Since the 2014 policy change expanding allowable uses of correspondence allotments, fourth and eighth grade reading and math scores in Alaska's public schools have dropped, with sharper declines after Dunleavy began flat-funding public education.
While many factors influence academic outcomes, this pattern raises serious concerns about the long-term impact of diverting public resources away from neighborhood schools, coupled with the erosion of buying power due to years of flat-funding education.
While Dunleavy proclaims himself an education advocate, his record is one of destruction. He has bled our schools dry, then blamed the consequences — teacher shortages, ballooning class sizes, gutted programs, declining scores — on the very system he eroded.
Real accountability means more than empty rhetoric — it means fulfilling your constitutional obligation to 'establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children of the state.' It means making good on your own policy promises — like funding the Alaska Reads Act — and giving educators the tools they need to do their jobs effectively. It means compensating teachers with the wages and benefits they need to support themselves and their families. Flat funding isn't accountability. It's abandonment.
After weeks of contentious debate, the Legislature passed the first education funding bill, HB 69, with 32 of 60 legislators voting in favor. Gov. Dunleavy swiftly vetoed it. After a failed override attempt, legislators then advanced HB 57, a revised education funding bill that incorporated many of the governor's own stated priorities. It passed with 48 votes.
Despite its bipartisan backing and clear compromises, the governor has vetoed yet another bill and threatened an additional line-item veto in the budget, relying on the same attacks he used to justify his previous education funding vetoes both this year and last.
To override the governor's veto of HB 57, it would take 40 legislators to stand with Alaska's students, educators, and communities. Blocking a line-item veto in the budget will take 45.
Alaska is in crisis: underfunded schools, frozen federal support, rising costs, layoffs, and an economy driving families and young professionals out. Without sensible leadership, the exodus will only accelerate.
We cannot solve this with half-measures or hollow sound bites.
HB 57 adds just $700 in per-student funding to the education budget, still far behind the inflation increases districts face. In our view, we can't afford not to make this investment.
To the lawmakers weighing whether to stand with the governor or with Alaska's families — this is your moment of truth.
You've seen the data. You've heard from your constituents. If you continue to support the Dunleavy Decline, it will be your legacy too.
If you believe in funding public education, you would vote for it, fight for it, build the coalition, and be on the right side of history.
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