“I’m definitely disappointed,” School Board President Dave Wilson said of the governor’s veto of $50 million in state funding for local school districts, including more than $100,000 for …
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“I’m definitely disappointed,” School Board President Dave Wilson said of the governor’s veto of $50 million in state funding for local school districts, including more than $100,000 for Wrangell. “I can’t say that I am surprised.”
Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed almost 30% of the increase in state funding approved by the Legislature for the 2025-2026 school year.
The governor blamed low oil prices for creating the situation where he felt it necessary to cut state spending. Most of the spending cuts imposed by his vetoes were for education.
“For someone who claims to be an educator, he certainty doesn’t show it,” Wilson said.
Dunleavy earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, then went on to work nearly 20 years in northwest Arctic communities as a teacher, principal and schools superintendent. He later served on the board of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, including two years as president, before his election to the state Senate in 2012.
His second term as governor will end in 2026. The constitution prohibits a third term.
Because of Dunleavy’s positions on school funding and education policy issues, Wilson said he doesn’t expect much from the state until a new governor is elected in November next year.
While the veto will mean more than $100,000 less in state aid for Wrangell than had the governor accepted the Legislature’s number — and about $100,000 less than the district received from the state this past year — it’s about $300,000 more than the district included in its budget for the 2025-2026 school year.
“We built our budget expecting nothing,” Wilson said in an interview after the governor’s vetoes were announced. Anything is a help for the district, he said.
The district has been spending down its reserves the past several years amid flat state funding and a tight borough budget that has limited how much the municipality can afford to contribute to schools.
Failure by the Republican-controlled U.S. House late last year to reauthorize the 25-year-old Secure Rural Schools program cost Wrangell about $800,000 in federal money for schools and road repairs, further straining tight borough and school district budgets.
School districts in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest hope for reauthorization this year of the federal program to assist communities hit financially by the decline of the timber industry, but congressional action is uncertain.
State funding provides more than 60% of the Wrangell school district’s revenues.
The governor’s veto reduced to $500 the Legislature’s $700 increase in the state’s per-student funding formula base. The formula is set in state law, but the annual appropriation to pay the bill is subject to a governor’s veto. Dunleavy is the first governor in state history to reduce the formula payment with a veto.
“This regressive attack on education funding and other educational programs, while the federal program is also being dismantled, is devastating,” Schools Superintendent Bill Burr said in his report to the school board for its meeting on June 16.
The district can manage for the 2025-2026 school year by further drawing down its reserves. But the governor’s veto puts the 2026-2027 budget at risk, Burr said.
The district budget for the 2025-2026 school year totals $5.98 million in spending versus $5.06 million in anticipated revenues — which assumed no additional state funding. Though the governor used his veto power to cut back the legislatively approved increase in state aid, because of its conservative budgeting Wrangell schools still will receive about $300,000 more from the state than the district had expected.
That additional assistance will reduce the budget deficit to about $650,000, instead of $950,000, allowing the school board to keep $300,000 in its operating reserves account.
Even with the boost, the district’s reserves account is projected to end the next school year at about $350,000, insufficient to cover another year’s deficit at current spending and revenue numbers.
