Alaska Lawmakers Prioritize More School Funding Amid Budget Constraints

Majority coalition says education remains top priority, but path to increased funding unclear

Published on Feb. 10, 2026

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Lawmakers in Alaska's bipartisan House majority coalition say increasing funding for public schools remains a top priority, but they face a challenging political reality of limited state revenue and 'advocacy fatigue' from Alaskans. While the legislature succeeded last year in boosting the state's per-student funding formula, districts across Alaska are still facing significant budget deficits due to years of flat funding and declining enrollment. Ideas for shoring up education funding this year include pegging the funding formula to inflation, providing dedicated funding for specific programs, and addressing a backlog of school maintenance projects, but it's unclear if any of these proposals will garner enough support to become law.

Why it matters

Alaska's public schools have struggled with stagnant state funding for years, leading to cuts to enrichment programs, larger class sizes, and difficulties retaining qualified teachers, especially in rural areas. Lawmakers' efforts to increase education funding are crucial to ensuring the state's students receive a quality education, but they face political and budgetary constraints that make finding a solution challenging.

The details

Last year, lawmakers succeeded in permanently increasing the state's per-student funding formula for K-12 public schools, overriding the governor's vetoes. However, this increase was less than half of what educators had requested, and it came on the heels of an outside-the-formula spending boost the previous year, meaning the state's effective K-12 education budget actually dropped between the last fiscal year and the current one. This has led to significant budget deficits for districts across the state, including a $90 million deficit for the Anchorage School District, a $23 million deficit for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, an $8.5 million deficit for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, and a more than $5 million deficit for Juneau schools.

  • In the 2023 fiscal year, the state's K-12 education budget was $1.29 billion.
  • In the current fiscal year, the state's K-12 education budget is $1.33 billion, a roughly 3% increase that is far below the inflation rate.
  • Alaska has 125,317 public school students this year, down from 126,284 in 2024, 127,931 in 2023, and 128,088 in 2022.

The players

Löki Tobin

Senate Education Committee Chair.

Rebecca Himschoot

House Education Committee Co-Chair and a Sitka independent.

Mike Dunleavy

The governor of Alaska, who has repeatedly slashed education funding during his tenure.

Andi Story

A Juneau Democrat who co-chairs the House Education Committee and has introduced a bill to change the way the state allocates money to districts.

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What they’re saying

“Education remains one of our No. 1 priorities, so we're not backing away from it in the House Majority coalition, in any way at all. Now the political reality of what's possible is a different story. So whatever is possible — we're committed to doing — and the limitation is what is actually possible.”

— Rebecca Himschoot, House Education Committee Co-Chair (adn.com)

“The Senate majority is continuing to look for pathways to help support our struggling public school infrastructure, and also our public school services, and we are going to use every opportunity and everything available to us to invest in the best and most important resource our state has, which is our children.”

— Löki Tobin, Senate Education Committee Chair (adn.com)

What’s next

The House Education Committee is currently considering a bill from Rep. Andi Story that would change the way the state allocates money to districts, potentially increasing state spending on schools by more than $70 million in the coming fiscal year. However, it's unclear if this bill will garner enough support to advance.

The takeaway

Alaska's lawmakers are grappling with the challenge of increasing education funding amid limited state revenue and 'advocacy fatigue' from Alaskans. While they remain committed to making education a top priority, the path to achieving meaningful and sustainable funding increases for the state's public schools remains unclear, underscoring the difficult political and budgetary realities they face.