NEWS: Governor vetoes school funding bill
Earlier today, Governor Dunleavy vetoed HB 69, which would have raised the Base Student Allocation by $1,000.
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
While the Legislature takes a break for the Easter holiday, the Governor chose today to vetoed HB 69, a bill to that increased the base student allocation by $1,000.
After a decade of flat funding, our public schools are in crisis and in desperate need of financial resources.
In an unsurprising move, the current administration had decided to continue prioritizing political agendas over the education of our children. They continue to promote one-size-fits-all, top-down mandates that undermine local control and parental rights.
It is deeply disappointing to witness this administration scapegoating their failed education funding policies by blaming teachers' unions and local school boards. Instead of targeting our hardworking educators and the community members who volunteer to serve on school boards, we should be addressing real issues like leaky roofs and overcrowded classrooms.
Raising the Base Student Allocation (BSA) is the right move, and during the Governor’s press conference, he indicated he will be introducing a new education bill that includes a BSA increase. I applaud this administration for finally supporting increasing school funding and I look forward to seeing this new piece of education policy, which will replace the current Governor's education bill (SB 82) that includes no increase to the BSA which currently sits in my committee.
I appreciate that the administration recognizes the urgent need for increased school funding; however, the bill he just vetoed did just that. Holding education funding hostage in favor of unnecessary policies is a serious mistake.
This veto is not a minor setback; it threatens our students, parents, teachers, and public schools.
I promise you, I won’t stop working with my colleagues to increase base school funding and bring fiscal stability to our schools.
- with gratitude,
Löki Gale Tobin