Opinion: Alaska’s public schools were once incredible. They can be that way again.

I grew up greeting friends and neighbors on my walk to my neighborhood Anchorage public school, just as my kids do now. It’s an essential, and value-added, part of living in our community.

In the late 1990s, when I attended Service High School, I had amazing teachers. My AP chemistry teacher left the oil and gas industry to teach. He could have earned significantly more money in another field, but teaching was competitive enough, given pensions and compensation, that he stayed in the job he loved and gave a generation of students a solid foundation in chemistry.

Now, my kids, who are in first, third and fifth grade, face a different reality. Teachers across our state are leaving in droves. Neighborhood schools across Alaska are closing. Art and music are being combined, which is nonsensical — they are not the same and they are both valuable independently. When he was in second grade, my oldest had a cohort of more than 60 students in his grade — split between two teachers. When he enters sixth grade next year, there will be no middle school sports and he will lose out on electives. Support systems and specialists to help when kids are falling behind have been cut. I’m lucky that my children have had amazing teachers, but many excellent teachers are nearing retirement age or don’t have a pension and are pursuing other careers. What happens then?

Despite skyrocketing inflation, last year was the first time in years that our schools received a significant increase in the Base Student Allocation — and that money doesn’t begin to make up for what they have lost over the years. Even that increase had to overcome two vetoes from what a recent teacher of the year calls “possibly the most anti-public education governor in the history of Alaska.” Shockingly, my own representative, Mia Costello, despite voting for the increase, failed to join the override to support education. She has failed to explain that decision when asked.

State spending on corrections is up 54% since 2019; meanwhile, spending on education is up only 12% in the same timeframe. Schools are now working with 77% of the funding they had 15 years ago when accounting for inflation.

When we starve our public schools of funding, Alaska families leave. No one wants their child to suffer from a subpar education and the lower test scores and opportunities that come with it. A significant number of people are working in Alaska but choosing not to raise their families here.

To the elected officials who preach school “choice” but starve public schools: our family’s choice is our neighborhood school. It’s our community. It’s where our friends are. Neighborhood public schools, which are required to accept all children, should be the best option out there. Public schools should be a good, strong, viable option for communities and neighborhoods across our great state. Once, they were.

I am thankful for those in the Legislature working to solve these problems. This includes HB 374, which raises the BSA by $630, and HB 261, which would make education funding less volatile.

It breaks my heart that across the state, dedicated teachers keep showing up for our kids while being underpaid and undervalued. Underfunding our schools is also a violation of Alaska’s constitution, which requires “adequate funding so as to accord to schools the ability to provide instruction in the standards.”

Not so long ago, Alaska’s public schools were adequately funded, and they produced well-educated students and retained excellent teachers. It’s up to all of us to reach out to our elected officials and urge them to make that the case once again.

Colleen Bolling is a lifelong Alaskan and mother of three who cares deeply about Alaska’s schools.

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