Legislature fails to override governor’s veto of school funding increase

Today, the Alaska Legislature failed to override Governor Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a $1,000 increase to the per-student base school funding formula, known as the BSA, or Base Student Allocation. 

The failure of the override is largely due to the price tag on the bill, which would have cost the state $253 million a year. Senate Finance Committee Co-Chairs Sen. Lyman Hoffman (D-Bethel) and Sen. Bert Stedman (R-Sitka) both voted to uphold the governor’s veto. They spoke during the floor session about the tough spot the state is in balancing its budget for the year.

“Our children, your children, people grandchildren deserve the education, a fair and an education that can bring them forward along with the state of Alaska,” Hoffman said. “But none of this can happen if we can't afford it.”

The third co-chair of Senate Finance, Sen. Donny Olson (D-Golovin), voted to override the veto, a change from his original vote on the Senate floor on April 11, when he voted against the bill.

Districts across the state advocated for the $1,000 BSA increase this year, arguing that a decade of flat state funding has whittled down districts’ abilities to fund essential school programs.

Sen. Löki Tobin (D-Anchorage) has repeatedly said schools are facing a funding crisis and an increase to the BSA is the way to help them. Tobin voted to override the veto.

The final vote in a joint session was 33-27 in favor of the override but far short of the two-thirds majority of 40 out of 60 legislators required to turn back a governor’s action. Many were not expecting to overrule the governor’s action, including Rep. Neal Foster (D-Nome) who supported the increase in school funding.

Last week Dunleavy vetoed House Bill 69 which aimed to raise the BSA by $1,000, a roughly 17 percent increase. He said the bill’s lack of policy provisions to support homeschooling and the state’s deteriorating finances were reasons for his veto.

Before HB 69 passed through the Legislature, it was stripped of policy provisions by the Senate Finance committee. They left the increase to “see what support there is on this funding level in this building,” said Hoffman. 

Dunleavy openly opposed this move, calling the bill “a joke” on social media and vetoing it days later.

This is the third year in a row the governor has vetoed a legislatively approved boost in school funding. Last year, the Legislature was one vote short of an override; that bill included many policy provisions requested by Dunleavy and a $680 BSA increase. 

Instead, schools received a one-time increase of $680 for the 2024-2025 school year, which many districts have said is not sufficient to keep up with the rising cost of inflation and declining enrollment. Bering Strait School District and Nome Public Schools have struggled with lower student enrollment, reducing their funding. 

The governor has proposed a new bill for consideration in the final four weeks of the session which include policies that would make it easier to create and disband charter schools, increase funding for homeschool students and award districts $450 for every student from kindergarten through sixth grade who demonstrates improvement in reading assessments.

Dunleavy said if the Legislature passes his new bill, he’d sign it into law “tomorrow” because it “will have policies that will help kids, and it will have the funding that is also being requested as well.” 

The Bering Strait School District is facing a $11 million deficit next year without any increase in state aid. If the Legislature and governor fund a $680 boost in the base per-student formula as it did last year, the district would still have a deficit of over $6 million. 

The Nome Public School District is covering their draft budget for next year by drawing on savings and assuming a $680 increase in the BSA.

Superintendent Jamie Burgess told the Nugget a $560 increase would not be enough to maintain current operations in the district and last-minute cuts would need to be made to balance the budget. The proposed increases for homeschool students and the reading growth bonus wouldn’t make up for the difference.

Foster said the Legislature will try again to pass a bill that increases the BSA using either the governor’s bill or a different one.

The Legislature faces a constitutional adjournment deadline of May 21.

This reporting from the State Capitol by Nugget reporter Anna Lionas is made possible by the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism’s Legislative Reporter Exchange. Alaska news outlets, please contact diana@nomenugget.com to republish this story.