The Wrangell School District could face a financial squeeze in the next several years, forcing hard decisions over which programs get cut, what classes go away and how much staff is left.
It’s not that the administration or staff did anything wrong. Just as school districts statewide, Wrangell has been waiting on some legislators and governors to put aside their biases against teacher unions, their personal views on political issues and their tendency to hold schools responsible for every shortcoming in society, and move to approve an increase in state funding for K-12 public education.
It’s been more than five years of flat state funding, and it’s the students who are paying the price of inadequate budgets.
The Legislature has increased the state’s per-pupil funding formula by 0% since 2017, while Alaska’s consumer price index has risen by 15.4%, and that doesn’t fully count the inflation spike of this year.
The stinginess of some lawmakers goes back more than a decade. From 2011 to 2021, Alaska’s consumer price index rose by 17.8%, while the state’s per-student funding formula increased just 4.4%.
State funding, which is required under the constitution, is the biggest piece of school budgets. In Wrangell’s case, the state’s per-student funding covers more than 60% of the district’s operating budget. The borough assembly approved a substantial increase in municipal funding for the schools for the 2022-2023 school year, but is now at the maximum allowed by state law.
Wrangell has patched the potholes of inadequate state funding with about $1 million in federal pandemic relief aid, spread over three school years. But that money is gone after this year. Which means that unless the state helps out more, the district will have a substantial revenue gap in its budget. One option would be to cut spending on staff and programs.
Most every district around Alaska is in the same situation. “It’s looking pretty grim,” said Scott MacManus, superintendent of the Alaska Gateway School District, which is headquartered in Tok and educates almost twice as many students as Wrangell. MacManus told the Anchorage Daily News last week that the end of federal pandemic aid is a “fiscal cliff.”
The Bering Strait School District, with about 2,000 students across 15 remote villages and the hub community of Unalakleet in Western Alaska, used the same federal aid to backfill its budget due to years of flat state funding, the Daily News reported.
Among the opponents of increased state funding is North Pole Republican Rep. Mike Prax, a member of the House Education Committee. He has been skeptical about the funding that districts already receive, citing shrinking enrollment and programs that he believes are outside the core function of public schools, like early childhood education and some sports.
Without debating the proven merits of early childhood education or the physical and motivational value of school sports, the representative’s math is wrong. Yes, lower enrollment will mean less funding. But denying a boost in the formula to keep up with inflation for those students in class is irresponsible.
It’s time for lawmakers next year to do the math and fund schools.
— Wrangell Sentinel
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