Amidst growing concerns about potential cuts to state education funding, the Lower Kuskokwim School District Board set its legislative goals last week. Continued forward funding, retirement reform, and broadband telecommunication capacity top this year’s list.
The thinking is that another year of forward funding would allow the district to budget ahead to hire teachers, while restoring the state retirement system would help retain those teachers. The third priority, broadband capacity, would allow the district to do more distance delivery of education, which board member Mike Husa says would fit right in with Gov. Mike Dunleavy's desire to improve educational opportunities for rural Alaskan students.
“It ties into a lot of things that Dunleavy has been pushing, as far as offering better classes to the village schools. His idea is we’ll turn them into regional boarding schools,” Husa said. “We can deliver that same content across VTC. As opposed to relocating the students, we’re basically relocating the teachers to multiple sites that way.”
District Superintendent Dan Walker told the board that the early signs on education policy from the Dunleavy administration are not encouraging, especially the governor's choice of Donna Arduin to run his Office of Management and Budget.
“One of the things that concerns me is his new, Dunleavy’s new OMB Director is from California, I think, and she has a history of coming into multiple states and basically gutting programs,” Walker said.
Walker said the current formula that the state uses to distribute education funding could be a convenient target for Arduin.
“And to look at a way of redoing that formula that will significantly impact our ability to meet our mission,” said Walker.
LKSD's mission is to “ensure bilingual, culturally appropriate and effective education for all students, thereby providing them with the opportunity to be responsible, productive citizens.”