By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
Alaska superintendents, principals and school officials delivered sobering testimony to lawmakers at the Alaska State Capitol last week. They painted a picture of schools struggling to continue to support teachers and students amid budget shortfalls, cuts to programs, teacher shortages, rising costs and increased facility maintenance needs.
Lisa Parady, director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, the non-profit advocacy and leadership organization that organized the annual fly-in event, said the group is concerned for all the state’s children.
“There’s no room for division,” she said, noting that there are often divides between the needs of urban and rural districts, or districts that are on the road system versus off the road system. “All those need to fall to the wayside when we’re talking about the best interest for our children in Alaska.”
School officials from across the state addressed a joint session of the House and Senate Education Committees on Mar. 30, and presented lawmakers with a list of legislative priorities and challenges for Alaska’s 53 districts and roughly 130,000 students.
Despite a historic raise in per student funding, known as the base student allocation, last year, officials say state funding still does not meet districts’ needs to hire and retain teachers, provide services and programs to students and keep up with maintaining aging school facilities.
To match the pace of inflation since 2011, school administrators said it would require the state to increase funding to the BSA by $1,283. Additionally, they highlighted student transportation costs have exceeded state funding by an estimated $65.5 million.
Several bills are currently being debated in the Legislature that would increase education funding, and a joint legislative task force on education funding is examining long term challenges with recommendations due in 2027.
High teacher turnover
School leaders’ presentation to lawmakers included research, data and testimony illustrating what the group described as converging crises faced by Alaska schools: teacher shortages, insufficient state funding and budget shortfalls and a growing number of students with disabilities needing special education services.
David Nogg, principal of Goldenview Middle School in Anchorage, highlighted how teacher shortages impact student achievement there.
“High teacher turnover is directly correlated with poor student achievement, and our children are suffering, unfortunately,” said Nogg, who is also president of the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals, housed within ACSA.
While teacher turnover has been historically high in rural and remote districts, teacher turnover was 30% in urban districts as well, according to 2024 data from the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research.
Nogg pointed to ISER research that found that in the five districts with the lowest teacher turnover, average student proficiency in reading was roughly 85%, while among the five districts with the highest teacher turnover, the average number of students with reading proficiency was roughly 47%.
“An urgent response is needed to address the dire vacancy rates and the need for in-person educators and support personnel across Alaskan schools,” Nogg said.
Researchers estimated the average cost of teacher turnover was $27,000 per teacher, and approximately $75,000 per principal.
“Only one out of every four principals are in the same building after five years,” he said. “This high turnover rate of building principals is costly in dollars, time, relationships and most importantly, the impact on student learning.”
Nogg said his list of responsibilities has grown from managing students, staff and facilities to include additional duties like standing in as school nurse, an experience shared by principals across the state. He said many teachers and school leaders are stretched so thin they’re leaving the state.
According to a survey by ACSA of teachers on their reasons for leaving in Alaska, the No. 1 reason cited was the lack of a defined benefit retirement plan, followed by better job opportunities in other states, high cost of living in Alaska, and uncertainty of education funding.
The group said legislative action to establish and fund a public pension system, with competitive salary and benefits for educators would help retain teachers.
In the meantime, ACSA has created several programs to help districts, teachers and staff with training, professional development and mentorship throughout the state, including the Alaska Staff Development Network and the Alaska School Leadership Academy.
The Alaska Educator Recruitment and Retention Center, also a division of the ACSA, is continuing efforts to support hiring and retention of teachers, said director Jennifer Schmitz, like hosting in-person and virtual job fairs, and marketing campaigns. But there are serious challenges.
“Those are big turnover numbers that we’re looking at,” Schmitz said. “We had 345 positions that were not filled on the first day of school this year.”
There are nearly 600 international teachers working across Alaska districts this year. But with a steep visa fee for the H-1B visa program levied by the Trump administration this year, as well as new restrictions on J-1 visa placements, many districts can’t hire more international teachers, Schmitz said. “So that’s really out of reach for us right now, so we’re working through that with our immigration attorney and helping support districts and finding even finding international teachers who are already in the country, and trying to get them to Alaska.”
Schmitz noted that many international teachers are hired for their expertise in special education.
A ‘vacancy tax’ for special education
The number of students in need of special education services is growing, and school districts are struggling to meet the demand, lawmakers heard.
Melissa Matthews, director of student services for the Bering Strait School District and president of Alaska Council of Administrators of Special Education, said districts are hiring contract staff for special education services, at higher costs, which she called a “vacancy tax.”
“We are spending more on work arounds, travel, contracted itinerant staff and temporary staffing than we would on a stable, permanent workforce across Alaska. Districts are doing everything they can to uphold the civil rights of students with disabilities, but we are stretched thin,” she said.
“We need the tools to move forward from simply surviving to truly educating, because an Alaskan student’s civil rights should never depend on whether a district can find a teacher or budget constraints,” she said.
There are nearly 200 vacant special education positions across the state, according to ASCA data, Matthews said.
“These are not optional roles. They are federally required,” she said. “Within the state, we are starting to see schools without a resident special education teacher at all, relying on itinerant staff who fly or commute between sites to supervise and train paraprofessionals who will be providing the specialized services to the student. This increases costs and stretches staff to their limits.”
“It is not a model designed for student success. It is a survival strategy,” she added.
Matthews said since 2021, in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, ASCA data shows Alaska has seen a 14% increase in the number of students with disabilities, requiring special education services.
She said that districts have to shoulder the legal obligation to meet those students’ needs, which can require increased staff because certain students’ needs require one-on-one settings.
Matthews said districts are also seeing an increase in students entering kindergarten with developmental delays, and urged the state to invest in infant learning programs and early education services to help address those delays and reduce the intensity of special education services required in later years.
Lawmakers passed increased funding for infant learning programs last year, but it was vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
‘Budget slasher in chief’
Randy Trani is the superintendent of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, which is facing a projected $23 million budget deficit and planning to close three elementary schools this year. He emphasized the state’s obligation under the Alaska Constitution to fund public education and said districts need predictable funding so educators can focus on student achievement.
He urged lawmakers to increase funding for the BSA and for deferred maintenance of school facilities, where the current statewide backlog is estimated at $535 million.
He said managing turnover and dwindling budgets is taking a toll on superintendents — where they would be focused on academics and school improvements, he said they’re now focused on budget cuts.
“Instead of being the academic leader in chief, we’re now the budget slasher in chief,” he said.
Trani showed lawmakers a slide of Alaska superintendents’ responses to the question of what keeps them up at night. The top three responses were budgets, school facilities, staff capacity, and “wrapping up my current job and preparing for the next job.”
“What’s on our mind, collectively, is budget and money, and you don’t see anything here about academic achievement, and that crushes people. It crushes our leaders,” he said.
