Alaska Legislature will vote Tuesday on school funding veto, with override not expected

Alaska’s state House and Senate are scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday to vote on whether or not to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill increasing the state’s per-student funding formula.

Multiple lawmakers have said that the Legislature likely lacks the votes for an override. Under the Alaska Constitution, the votes of 40 of the Legislature’s 60 members, meeting in joint session, are required to override the veto of a policy bill.

House Bill 69, which seeks to increase the base student allocation — core of Alaska’s per-pupil funding formula — passed the House and Senate by a combined vote of 32-25.

HB 69 proposes an increase of $1,000 to the BSA, or $253 million per year in total. 

Last year, legislators proposed a $680 increase to the BSA, and the related bill passed the House and Senate by a combined vote of 56-3. Legislators failed to override Dunleavy’s veto of that bill by a single vote.

Public education advocates say years of flat state funding has led to significant cuts to Alaska’s public schools, which have had to deal with inflation-driven cost increases.

The governor, and a decisive number of legislators who support him, say funding increases must be paired with policy changes intended to improve school performance.

Two years of negotiations have failed to result in a suite of policy changes that are acceptable to the governor and a majority of legislators. 

Without the formula change, the public-school funding level in the state’s annual operating budget will be decisive. 

The House has voted in favor of a budget that includes one-time bonus funding equivalent to a $1,000 BSA increase, but because the House’s budget also includes a significant deficit, the Senate may propose a smaller increase. 

The Senate’s draft budget has yet to emerge from the Senate Finance Committee.