Sen. Tobin Condemns Veto of Public Education Funding

Sen. Tobin supports an effort to override the short-sighted line-item veto.

Today, Senator Löki Gale Tobin (D-Anchorage) condemned Governor Dunleavy’s decision to use his line-item veto authority to cut $87 million in one-time funding for Alaska’s public education system.

“Due to the Governor’s actions today, our public schools are going to have to make do with substantially less funding than they need to provide for reasonable class sizes and prevent teachers from leaving Alaska for better opportunities elsewhere. Inflation has made it much more expensive to keep the lights on and keep school buildings warm. Unfortunately, the Governor’s line-item veto will further shift that burden to local school districts, and in many cases, local taxpayers. I fully support an effort by the Alaska State Legislature to override this short-sighted veto.” - Sen. Tobin, chair of the Senate Education Committee.

Considering today’s veto of one-time education funding, Sen. Tobin is urging the House of Representatives to swiftly pass Senate Bill 52 or Senate Bill 140 when the Alaska Legislature reconvenes in January 2024. Both bills would increase Alaska’s Base Student Allocation (BSA) by $680. The Senate Education Committee heard from the non-partisan Legislative Finance Division that the BSA needed to go up by $1,348 to account for inflation dating back to 2015. However, given the State’s financial constraints, that proved unaffordable. That led to the compromise of a $680 BSA increase, which passed the Alaska State Senate in the form of SB 52 on May 11 by a vote of 16-3.

“While I and many others were disappointed that the legislation to increase the BSA didn’t pass the House this year, we were buoyed by the fact that that budget included a comparable one-time increase in education funding to allow more time to pass a permanent increase. It’s a shame that the Governor used his line-item veto power to hurt kids and further destabilize our public school system. I fear that what has been communicated to the broader public today is that Alaska does not believe in high-quality public education. I know that is not the case, which makes today so disappointing. It is time to get a large BSA increase on the books by putting it into state law through a stand-alone bill. One-time funding is not the solution our students, parents, and teachers need because, as evidenced by today, it is always subject to the Governor’s line-item veto authority.” - Sen. Tobin