Public Comment Opened on Bishop's Education Funding Ambush
Remember just a few weeks ago when Deena Bishop and the State Board of Education got caught trying to pilfer millions from school districts’ coffers? Well, here’s your chance to speak up.
And so it begins.
Dr. Deena Bishop, Dunleavy’s favorite rubber stamp, along with the rest of the State Board of Education, has opened the public comment period on the same regulation they tried (and failed) to sneak through two weeks ago. If at first you don’t succeed in gutting public education, try again, right?
The quick bit: The Dunleavy administration wants to strip $15 million from the Anchorage School District and millions more from other school districts. Here in Anchorage, that means money that pays for Anchorage police school resource officers, Pre-K programs, after-school care, school buses, and mental health support. That’s not hypothetical political fearmongering...it’s happening if this regulation goes through. And it won’t just impact Anchorage; districts across the state are in Bishop's crosshairs.
Why? Because Bishop and her anti-education pals are playing accounting games to make it look like Alaska is “equitable” enough to qualify for $81 million in federal Impact Aid. But, instead of pushing the Legislature to adequately fund our schools, they’re working to redefine what constitutes a “local contribution.”
Under these disengenous proposed rules, in-kind services would count against the amount local governing bodies, such as the Anchorage Assembly, are allowed to give to school districts. And to ensure school districts are totally screwed over (as if they haven't been for more than a decade), Bishop plans to make the regulation retroactive to Fiscal Year '25. The bottom line is that school districts across the state could be forced to pull back millions that have already been budgeted.
Alaska’s own public education fire-breathing dragon, Senator Löki Gale Tobin, called Bishop's latest ploy precisely what it is—"the newest threat to public education." Again, for the Anchorage School District alone, that’s a devastating $15 million hit. And when all of this came up at the State Board of Education's board meeting two weeks ago, we witnessed hours of non-stop public testimony against the proposed regulation. Parents, teachers, school superintendents, and even lawmakers were all essentially saying the same thing: What the hell are you doing?
Eventually, Board Chair James Fields hit pause on Bishop's ploy, most likely because not even he could defend the chaos she had intentionally created with her attempted backdoor heist, and begrudingly opened a 30-day public comment window.
Want to make some noise? Good, because the 30-day public comment on this stupid regulation is open.
If you're pissed off at the Dunleavy administration for trying to pilfer school districts' coffers, submit a comment to the Department of Education and Early Development no later than 5:00 PM on July 23, 2025.
