Alaska

Alaska included among states with highest Alaska Native and Native American absences

Published

1 year ago

December 4, 2024

Alaska included among states with highest Alaska Native and Native American absences

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska Native students are more likely to drop out of school and have the lowest attendance rates above all subgroups, except for homeless students, in Alaska.

That’s according to data compiled by the Associated Press as part of its Missing Kids project, which focuses on students who continue to be chronically absent since the pandemic.

AP Exclusive data on Native American students and absenteeism from across the country shows startling statistics:

Native absenteeism rates are at least 10 percentage points higher than the local average in half of the states featured, including Alaska.
In almost every state with data, including Alaska, absenteeism for Native students increased more than it did for students as a whole. In some cases, Native absenteeism worsened even as attendance improved for other students.
In some states — Alaska, Nebraska and South Dakota — the majority of Native students missed enough school to be considered chronically absent.
In Alaska attendance rate for Alaska Native students was 84.71% and the dropout rate was 72.49%, according to state numbers compiled from 2022-23.

The only subgroup with a lower attendance and dropout rate were homeless students with an 81.08% attendance rate and a 9.43% dropout rate. English learners also had a higher dropout rate at 6.05%.

In Alaska, the highest attendance rates are led by students who are white, not economically disadvantaged, and those with active duty parents or guardians. The lowest dropout numbers are for the same groups.

Overall the student attendance rate in Alaska is 90.10% with a dropout rate of 3.55%, according to the state.

A request for comment from the Alaska Department of Education was not returned.

AP data shows that many schools with a large number of Native American students are trying to strengthen connections with families who often struggle with higher rates of illness and poverty and repairing distrust dating back to the U.S. government’s campaign to break up Native American and Alaska Native culture, language and identity by forcing children into often abusive boarding schools.

“[History] may cause them to not see the investment in a public school education as a good use of their time,” Dallas Pettigrew, director of Oklahoma University’s Center for Tribal Social Work, and a member of the Cherokee Nation, told the AP.

Oklahoma has proven to be a bright spot going against these trends. AP data shows that out of 34 states with data for the 2022-2023 school year, Oklahoma was the only one where Native students missed school at lower rates than the state average.

So what is Oklahoma doing differently?

That state has 38 federally recognized tribes, many with their own education departments that support and contribute to student’s success.

Part of that is an alternative program called Eagle Academy that helps students who continue to miss class or have low grades by strengthening bonds between the schools and families. Those students are rewarded for attendance with incentives like field trips. When students miss class, a teacher and assistant go to the student’s home to visit the family to figure out what barrier contributed to the absence.

In Oklahoma, an Indian Education Director would do things such as making sure students have school supplies and clothes, and the role would connect students with federal and tribal resources. If a student doesn’t show up to school, the person with the position and a colleague could drive to pick the child up.

Holie Youngbear, the Indian Education Director at the Watonga school system in Oklahoma, says a cycle of skipping school goes back to the abuse generations of Native students endorsed in boarding schools.

“Native students are never going to feel really welcomed unless the non-Native faculty go out of their way to make sure that those Native students feel welcomed,” Pettigrew said.

There are efforts in Alaska to envelope students stronger into their schools.

Indigenous educators from across the state Wednesday submitted the first-ever reading standards for Native languages to the Alaska State Board of Education and Early Development this past October. If signed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the standards would allow Alaska Native languages to be part of the state’s reading requirements.

Alaska’s News Source asked the governor’s office if he would implement the standards and if there are any studies or solutions coming from his administration.

“Any new standards would be set by the state board of education. We do not have any new studies on chronic absenteeism, and I am sure you can find a local expert yourself,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.

The draft shows what students in grades K-3 are expected to know at each stage of their educational journey, and were developed by 14 Ahtna, Aleut, Alutiiq, Gwich’in Athabascan, Inupiaq, Tlingit and Yup’ik educators with a goal of elevating Alaska Native languages and culture to inspire students and help them connect to their schools.

The group created the standards at the behest of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), with Sealaska Heritage Institute leading the effort.

“Just a few generations ago, well remembered in our oral history, all of Alaska was Indigenous territory,” the group stated. “Alaska Native languages are the Indigenous languages of this land and have been spoken here for tens of thousands of years.

“Up until 1930, less than 100 years ago, Alaska Native people made up the majority of Alaska’s population, speaking twenty-three different languages despite colonial efforts to eradicate them,” the group wrote. ”Those twenty-three Alaska Native languages are now considered official by the State of Alaska, meaning that they are acceptable to use for government and legal purposes and are taught and used in schools.”

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Alaska

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

2 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

14 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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Alaska

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

iStock / Getty Images

This is a tax tutorial for gubernatorial candidates, for legislators who will report to work next year and for the Alaska public.

Think of it as homework, with more than eight months to complete the assignment that is not due until the November election. The homework is intended to inform, not settle the debate over a state sales tax or state income tax — or neither, which is the preferred option for many Alaskans.

But for those Alaskans willing to consider a tax as a personal responsibility to help fund schools, roads, public safety, child care, state troopers, prisons, foster care and everything else necessary for healthy and productive lives, someday they will need to decide on a state income tax or a state sales tax after they accept the checkbook reality that oil and Permanent Fund earnings are not enough.

This homework assignment is intended to get people thinking with facts, not emotions. Electing the right candidates will be the first test.

Alaskans have until the next election because nothing will change this year. It will take a new political alignment led by a reality-based governor to organize support in the Legislature and among the public.

But next year, maybe, with the right elected leadership, Alaskans can debate a state sales tax or personal income tax. Plus, of course, corporate taxes and oil production taxes, but those are for another school day.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of a state sales tax is that visitors would pay it. Yes, they would, but not as much as many Alaskans think.

Air travel is exempt from sales taxes. So are cruise ship tickets. That’s federal law, which means much of what tourists spend on their Alaska vacation is beyond the reach of a state sales tax.

Cutting further into potential revenues, state and federal law exempts flightseeing tours from sales tax, which is a particularly costly exemption when you think about how much visitors spend on airplane and helicopter tours.

That leaves sales tax supporters collecting from tourists on T-shirts, gifts for grandchildren, artwork, postcards, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals and restaurant meals. Still a substantial take for taxes, but far short of total tourism spending.

An argument against a state sales tax is that more than 100 cities and boroughs already depend on local sales taxes to pay for schools and other public services. Try to imagine what a state tax piled on top of a local tax would do to kill shopping in Homer, already at 7.85%, or Kodiak, Wrangell and Cordova, all at 7%, and all the other municipalities.

Supporters of an income tax say it would share the responsibility burden with nonresidents who earn income in Alaska and then return home to spend their money.

Almost one in four workers in Alaska in 2024 were nonresidents, as reported by the state Department of Labor in January. That doesn’t include federal employees, active-duty military or self-employed people.

Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar covered in the report.

However, many of those nonresident workers are lower-wage and seasonal, employed in the seafood processing and tourism industries, unlikely to pay much in income taxes. But a tax could be structured so that they pay something, which is fair.

Meanwhile, higher-wage workers in oil and gas, mining, construction and airlines (freight and passenger service) would pay taxes on their income earned in Alaska, which also is fair.

It comes down to what would direct more of the tax burden to nonresidents: a tax on income or on visitor spending. Wages or wasabi-crusted salmon dinners.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.

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