Alaska Legislature fails to override Gov. Dunleavy's school funding veto

Sean Maguire, Anchorage Daily News on Apr 22, 2025

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JUNEAU, Alaska — The Alaska Legislature on Tuesday failed to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a $1,000 increase to the Base Student Allocation, the state’s per-student funding formula.

Lawmakers voted to sustain Dunleavy’s veto in a 33-27 vote on Tuesday afternoon, seven votes shy of the 40-legislator threshold.

School administrators have said a $1,000 BSA increase is needed after almost a decade of virtually flat state funding. Multiple school districts report that flat funding means hundreds of teachers face losing their jobs; classroom sizes will continue to balloon; and popular programs will be cut.

Dunleavy vetoed House Bill 69 last week, saying that the bill contained no policy. With the state facing a dire fiscal outlook, Dunleavy said that a $250 million annual funding increase for schools would be unaffordable.

Democratic Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson supported overriding Dunleavy’s veto. She said during the joint session that parents across Alaska “care deeply about the quality of their children’s education,” and that flat funding has led to overcrowding of classrooms and teachers leaving Alaska.

“The consequences of underfunding are being felt deeply,” she said.

Some lawmakers said they supported a substantial school-funding increase, but that it would be unaffordable based on the state’s current revenue picture.

Bethel Democratic Sen. Lyman Hoffman, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said that he would vote to sustain Dunleavy’s veto with “great reluctance.” He said he supported a $1,000 BSA boost, but only with new revenue measures enacted to address “the state’s major budget deficit.”

On Tuesday, Dunleavy introduced an alternative education package he promised shortly after issuing the veto. The measure contains a $560 increase to the BSA, along with roughly $35 million for homeschooled students and in reading incentive grants. The measure also has plans to limit cellphones in schools and provisions intended to support charter schools.

The Alaska Constitution requires lawmakers to “meet immediately in joint session” after a governor vetoes a bill during a regular legislative session. Overriding Dunleavy’s veto required support from 40 of 60 legislators, or two-thirds of the Alaska Legislature.

HB 69 had contained policies intended to appeal to Dunleavy and Republican lawmakers. As the bill advanced through the legislative process, Dunleavy said he opposed it. Dunleavy said provisions requiring greater oversight of homeschool spending would be “inequitable.”

Earlier in the month, the Senate Finance Committee stripped out all the policy provisions from the bill, except for the $1,000 BSA boost, triggering Dunleavy’s veto threat.

Last year, lawmakers approved a $175 million increase in school funding. That was equal to a $680 BSA boost, but only temporarily. Some in the Legislature said that should be the minimum funding level for education approved this year.

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, a Nikiski Republican, supported the $1,000 BSA boost and said that it would be a $78 million school-funding increase on what was approved in 2024. Bjorkman, a former teacher, said that public education is a “core constitutional responsibility.” Class sizes are increasing as opportunities are being eliminated in areas like career and technical education, he said.

“Our schools are unable to meet their mission effectively, because they don’t have the budget to deliver on the requirements that we expect,” he said.

With one month left in the legislative session, multiple lawmakers said it would be difficult to craft a consensus education agreement that is supported by a majority of lawmakers and Dunleavy.

Multiple members of the bipartisan House and Senate majorities said a $560 per-student funding increase, as proposed by the governor, would be insufficient for schools in crisis. Republican lawmakers who voted to sustain Dunleavy’s veto said policies need to be enacted to improve Alaska’s bottom-of-the-nation test scores.

Last year, the Legislature fell one vote short of overriding Dunleavy’s veto of another education package. That vote became a key issue in several legislative races in the 2024 general election.

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