Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget that includes $1.6 billion in cuts would cost the Haines Borough School District hundreds of thousands of dollars next year should the legislature adopt the governor’s budget.
Dunleavy’s proposed budget includes a 23 percent cut to per-student funding across the state. The Haines Borough School District is projected to receive $2.2 million in per-student funding next year based on last year’s budgeted allocation, said superintendent Roy Getchell. A 23 percent cut to that is about $500,000. Getchell said the formula used to calculate per-student allocation has multiple variables, and it’s too early to calculate an exact figure. Still, Getchell said, it would be a sizable cut.
“No high performing system on our planet has achieved excellence through austerity, especially of the magnitude that this budget proposes,” Getchell wrote in a letter to Dunleavy shortly after the governor unveiled his budget Wednesday morning.
“I did not think the education governor was going to be doing this to education,” Getchell said of Dunleavy, who is a former teacher and school superintendent.
Dunleavy also eliminated the state’s school debt reimbursement funding—money from the state aimed at offsetting the cost of building new schools and funding large capital projects. The state has given $900,000 to the Haines Borough every year since it built the $17 million school in 2005. That money will go away should Dunleavy’s budget move forward.
“I’m hoping I’m wrong, that I’m just reading it wrong,” said borough finance director Jila Stuart when she was reviewing Dunleavy’s proposal.
All funding for early childhood programs in the state’s Department of Education and Early Development has been removed, money that pays for student enrollment at Haines Head Start and its Parents as Teachers program, which sends staff into homes to work with parents and children.
The ferry service is also facing a 68 percent cut, along with a proposal to privatize the ferry system or engage in a public private partnership. The Dunleavy administration has directed the Alaska Department of Transportation to hire a “qualified marine consultant” to identify reductions and start an investigation into “reshaping the Alaska Marine Highway System.”
“This was really not unexpected, but it is a very serious blow to the marine highway system and many other programs in the state,” said Southeast Conference executive director Robert Venables.
Dunleavy has also proposed eliminating state funding to public radio. KHNS general manager Kay Clements said the station has lost $75,000 in funding due to budget cuts over the last several years. “We’re used to expecting cuts, but not to zeroing out,” Clements said. “It would be significant.”
“I think everyone in this room knows we have to get our fiscal house in order,” Dunleavy said at a press conference Wednesday when he previewed his budget. “And I think everyone in this room and in this state realizes that there’s going to be sacrifices across the board, that this has gone on too long, and that it’s got to stop.”
The legislature can make changes to the budget before it sends it back to the governor who can sign or veto the spending plan.