Uncredible! ASD Debunks AG Cox’s Hillsdale Allegations, Citing Bishop-Era Policy

Anchorage School District officials this week offered a detailed account that sharply contradicts allegations made by Attorney General Stephen J. Cox and DEED Commissioner Deena Bishop regarding the handling of materials distributed in ASD schools by the far-right, Heritage Foundation–aligned Hillsdale College.

In a formal response to AG Cox obtained by The Blue Alaskan via public information request, the Anchorage School District said the placement of a non-endorsement sticker on Hillsdale College pamphlets (editorialized propaganda) was not an act of political interference, but the result of a procedural rule adopted during Bishop’s tenure. The District said the sticker was applied by an individual unaffiliated with ASD who followed the guidelines established by Bishop regarding how outside organizations must label their materials before distributing them on school property.

According to the Anchorage School District's letter, a similar concern was raised in May 2021, when a community member contacted then-superintendent Deena Bishop directly about a near-identical Hillsdale pamphlet bearing the same disclaimer. ASD said in it's letter to Cox that it found no record Bishop ever responded to the inquiry or directed staff to revise or clarify the underlying rule.

"We regret this [Bishop's] inaction caused the matter to go unresolved for so long," ASD wrote.

In a letter sent to the Anchorage School District and leaked to far-right blogger and propagandist Suzanne Downing last week, AG Cox suggested the disclaimer stickers reflected deliberate misconduct by current ASD employees and issued unprecedented sweeping requests for information from the District. In its reply, ASD noted that under Anchorage’s home-rule structure, the Attorney General does not have the authority he attempted to assert over local school operations and that future correspondence regarding the matter should be routed through District counsel.

The District also raised concerns in its response about a potential conflict of interest involving AG Cox. ASD pointed out that Cox co-founded a private K-12 school that received “help and support” through a relationship connected to Hillsdale College, the same organization whose materials are at issue. ASD asked Cox to clarify whether he would recuse himself should the matter continue within the Department of Law.

Beyond addressing Cox's fantastical claims, ASD urged state officials to focus on what it described as the pressing challenges facing Alaska schools: unpredictable funding levels, difficulties recruiting and retaining educators amid rising health-care costs, the impact of recent disasters on families, and the urgent need to improve student achievement through successful implementation of the Alaska Reads Act.

The District’s response offers the most comprehensive account to date of the origins of the controversy and provides factual context that diverges significantly from the baseless narrative advanced by Cox and Bishop. According to ASD’s documentation, the procedural error at the center of the dispute emerged from a policy developed under Bishop, was first flagged to her several years ago, and persisted because she never corrected it.

Taken together, the District’s letter leaves little room for the fantasies being pushed from Juneau. Cox and Bishop tried to build a crisis, stitching a far-right narrative onto a pile of alternative facts that collapse under the weight of actual facts.