The Petersburg School District will join a group that is planning to sue the state for failure to properly fund education. The Petersburg School Board voted unanimously to join the Coalition of Education Equity at their meeting on April 16. The nonprofit advocates for education policy in Alaska. Executive Director Caroline Storm addressed the school board at its last meeting.
“Our core purpose is to champion adequacy and equity for all kids, and holding the state accountable to its constitutional obligation to fund public education and keep public funds in public schools,” she said.
The state is constitutionally obligated to adequately fund schools, according to past court rulings. The group has been advocating for the past two years for a significant, permanent, and inflation-proof increase to the state’s per-student funding formula, or Base Student Allocation.
Bipartisan education legislation that would have permanently increased the Base Student Allocation by $680 was vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy last month. A veto override failed by one vote. It would have been the first significant increase to the state’s school funding formula since 2016. An operating budget with $175 million in one-time education funding has passed the House and seems to have support in the Senate. It would be equivalent to a $680 per-student increase but just for one year. Dunleavy can line-item veto some or all of that funding.
Storm said the group will file a lawsuit even if the Legislature passes one-time education funding, because without dependable funding districts can’t plan long term, and because a $680 per-student increase doesn’t come close to what districts need.
Fifteen school districts in the state are members of the nonprofit. Storm says because education funding is tight it can be hard for districts to find the money to pay the $8,000 yearly membership. But she said they’re rethinking those fees.
“Yeah, I wasn’t part of how the fee structure was set up originally, but it doesn’t work for me,” she said. “So that is in review, so that in fact, the smaller districts will pay a much lower membership fee. I don’t want the fee to be a barrier to districts joining.”
During a presentation to the Petersburg School Board earlier this month, Storm emphasized that the group will not ask member districts to pony up more money for legal fees to pay for the lawsuit against the state.
The Coalition for Education Equity has had success with lawsuits in the past. More than a decade ago, it won a suit with the state over construction funding practices that discriminated against rural schools. The group settled with the state in a second lawsuit that alleged the state education system didn’t sufficiently support Alaska’s underperforming schools.
