The battle for education funding in the state legislature continued during Thursday’s House and Senate joint session when lawmakers failed to override Governor Mike Dunleavy’s veto of one-time extra school funding approved by the Legislature last year.
The amount originally approved by the House and Senate last May was $175 million, half of which the governor–who is a former public school teacher–promptly vetoed.
Following their joint session on Thursday, the House invited all members of the Senate for a joint vote on whether or not to override the veto.
“I think there are roughly 20 members of this body who graduated from high schools here in Alaska, where they enjoyed a broad range of programs supplementing the academic curriculum, which might have included sports, might have included world languages, which are of course, academics,” said Representative Rebecca Himschoot of Sitka. “Their schools might have had nurses and librarians. And a lot of these students that we have today are not enjoying the same benefits that many of us or many of my colleagues enjoyed in the past. And for that reason, I believe we need to consider immediately using our 2024 budget funds to support those schools. And I think an override is in order.”
Ultimately, the override failed, falling by a final joint vote of 33-26 (Alaska requires a 3/4 majority of 60 legislators to override).
