Todd Smolden, Education Policy Advisor to Governor Mike Dunleavy, addressed a gathering of local business owners and community representatives on Wednesday during the Soldotna and Kenai joint Chambers of Commerce luncheon. Smolden sought to clarify bills introduced by the governor in January.
The primary point of contention between Dunleavy’s camp and those seeking an increase to the Base Student Allocation (BSA) in Alaska has been the omission of any increase in the governor’s bills, HB 76 and SB 82. Smolden, however, said that the bills do include money for education.
“There is additional money in what [the governor] has put forward in legislation, almost 200 million dollars. It’s just that the money is in the multiplier. It’s in how the BSA is calculated. So, the BSA is Base Student Allocation or allotment, and then it goes through a multiplier based on where the school district is, who the students are, and so on and so forth,” Smolden said after the luncheon.
The battle over education funding has been the subject of much consternation between some legislators and school districts, and the governor after Dunleavy vetoed a bill to increase the BSA by $680 in last year’s legislature.
School districts have responded to budget shortfalls with sweeping cuts and school closures. Schools in Southeast Alaska, Fairbanks, and Anchorage have been permanently closed, and just this week, the Anchorage School District approved the termination of High School hockey, swimming and diving, gymnastics, and all middle school sports, as well as increasing the student-to-teacher ratio by four at all grade levels.
Negotiations continue in Juneau between the governor and the legislation as the two sides attempt to reach some sort of compromise between Dunleavy’s emphasis on education reform and the legislation’s aim to increase the BSA.