Photo courtesy of Susan Walker, Juneau Community Collective
NOTN- An Alaska Seaplanes floatplane made an emergency landing in the Mendenhall River this morning, with no injuries reported.
The company says a de Havilland Beaver, tail number N777DH, made the emergency landing at about 11:17 a.m., shortly after taking off from the floatplane pond at Juneau International Airport.
According to a Facebook post, there was one pilot aboard and no passengers. The pilot was unharmed and is now with Alaska Seaplanes personnel.
The aircraft landed safely but later drifted into a floating root ball in the river. Alaska Seaplanes personnel are working to recover the plane.
The company says additional information will be provided as it becomes available.
Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval speaks on May 21, 2026, at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage, while Gov. Mike Dunleavy listens. Glenfarne is the company now proposing to build a liquefied natural gas project to commercialize North Slope’s stranded reserves. Dunleavy on Wednesday introduced a new bill proposing tax concessions to encourage construction of the LNG project. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday introduced a new natural gas pipeline bill that he characterized as a compromise between conflicting philosophies on oil and gas taxes that he wants lawmakers to pass during the ongoing special session.
The new bill would nearly eliminate property taxes that would be charged on the operator of a yet-to-be-built gas pipeline. Dunleavy and Glenfarne, the Texas-based investment company that is now the main sponsor of the gas pipeline project, have argued in recent months that such concessions are a major requirement for the project to be built.
The special session is due to end in less than two weeks. Lawmakers are still evaluating the proposal, but on Monday members of the Senate’s bipartisan majority expressed reticence to make quick decisions on a gasline bill.
Dunleavy’s new bill contains a concession to a tax previously sought by the Senate majority. It would also impose a small corporate income tax on certain private oil- and gas-producing corporations. Those companies, also known as S corporations or pass-through corporations, are currently exempted from such taxes in Alaska law. For now, the main corporation that would be affected is Hilcorp, a privately held Texas-based company that operated the Prudhoe Bay field and other North Slope assets that used to be owned by BP. Several legislators view Hilcorp’s exemption from corporate income taxes as a loophole that should be closed.
The governor said legislators should pass his bill in what is now the third special session he has called on the subject.
“I have never been in favor of new taxes on Alaska’s producers, and I still am not,” Dunleavy said in a statement. “This bill is a compromise that removes a significant barrier to moving the gas line forward. Given the robust discussion and work that has already gone into this bill, I am hopeful the legislature can swiftly pass a bill that will help the AK LNG project get the financing it needs to start construction as soon as possible.”
The 2% tax rate Dunleavy proposed on petroleum-producing S corporations is significantly lower than the lower than tax rates legislative leaders have previously proposed, which went up as high as 9.4%.
Doug Fletcher, a Glenfarne employee, prepares to close down the company’s “Build The Line” booth at the Fairbanks Golden Days street fair on June 25, 2026. The campaign aims to convince state lawmakers to pass tax concessions that Glenfarne argues are needed to make the LNG project a reality. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Officials and energy companies in Alaska and elsewhere have been pushing since the 1970s — even before oil began flowing through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System — for a second pipeline to deliver the North Slope’s vast but stranded natural gas resources to markets. None of the plans has been economically feasible, even though politicians at various points over the past decades declared that construction was imminent.
The current iteration of the gas commercialization plan calls for a pipeline to run about 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to tidewater at Cook Inlet, where the product would be liquefied for shipment by tanker to markets. The estimated price tag is $65 billion to $70 billion, according to legislators.
A bill considered during an earlier special session, House Bill 381, proposed to grant the property tax concession, but it also included several conditions for any LNG sponsor to meet, such as timeline assurances, labor protections, alternative sources of state revenue and required financial support of local school districts.
The bill also included a bracketed income tax with rates up to 9.4% on petroleum-producing S corporations such as Hilcorp — significantly higher than the 2% that Dunleavy is now proposing.
One lawmaker on Wednesday said Dunleavy’s new bill, just like any oil tax legislation, should not be rushed.
“It would be wildly irresponsible to pass complex oil and gas legislation without due diligence to understand the consequences,” said Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage.
Leaders of the state Senate majority caucus, in a statement on Monday, expressed skepticism about the need for any further concessions to help Glenfarne’s plan.
“For more than fifty years, Alaskans have worked to bring our gas to market, and every member who has served in this building shares that goal. The Senate has done its part in good faith, passing two bills that would let this project move forward while protecting the people we answer to,” Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said in the statement. “A decision of this scale will outlast all of us, and it deserves to be made with care rather than in haste. We are ready to evaluate the project further once the producer, Glenfarne, and the Administration bring us the numbers this year. These are Alaska’s resources, and they must work first and foremost for Alaskans.”
The special session is scheduled to end on Aug. 25.
nn Lind looks out from her balcony on Marion Drive at the Mendenhall River as it rises on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
As the Mendenhall River swells with glacial outburst floodwater, hundreds of people living in the suburban valley below spent Tuesday night and Wednesday preparing to evacuate or hunker down. The National Weather Service predicts the flood will crest Thursday.
On Marion Drive, Ann Lind plans to watch the flood from her second-story balcony overlooking the Mendenhall River.
“I got lawn chairs up there, and we’ll just be sitting there, and that’s where I’ve been every year,” she said.
Lind said her crawl space flooded last year when water leaked through the HESCO barriers and a drainage pipe failed. She said she’s staying again this year to protect the property.
Ann Lind secures sandbags at her house on Marion Drive on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
“Because if I wouldn’t have stayed last year, I never would have known that I was flooding back there, and the flooding would have been way worse,” she said. “Within 30 minutes of me calling for help, I had nine guys and five pumps back there.”
She said she’s more confident her home won’t flood this time after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers placed an industrial-sized pump just beyond her lawn to send water that leaks through the flood wall back into the river.
Although she plans to stay behind with her 17-year-old daughter, she said her other kids and pets will evacuate – heeding official advice.
Downstream from Lind’s place, on Meander Way, Locke Brown said he and his wife are optimistic about flood protection this year. Last year, the pair’s crawl space and garage flooded.
“If we had these pumps on the roads sitting here last year, I think we probably wouldn’t have had any water in the house,” he said.
Locke and Melissa Brown sit on their porch at their home on Meander Way as the Mendenhall River rises on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
They said they’re grateful for the pumps and bolstered flood wall provided by the Army Corps this year — but they’re not taking any chances. They said that once the water rises high up on the barriers, they plan to evacuate to a camper they have set up outside of the flood zone.
Locke is retired from the U.S. Coast Guard and his wife still works for the Coast Guard.
“We’ve made our living saving people when they know they should have left,” he said.
Locke said the prudent thing is to leave since there’s a possibility the barriers could fail.
“It’s one of those unknowns. You just — what do they say? — Prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” he said. “We just feel like, at this point, we’re just driftwood. Whatever happens is gonna happen, and we’re just gonna have to deal with it when it’s over.”
HESCO barriers installed along the Mendenhall River on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
Just a few blocks over, on Gee Street, Benson Bullock said he’s not too worried. He’s patching a pair of waders in his garage, but not for walking through floodwaters.
“Hopefully, if it’s not too crazy, I’ll be going fishing,” he said.
Bullock had a few inches of water in his garage during the catastrophic flood in 2024, but his house has never flooded. Bullock says he plans to put sandbags in front of the garage before the flood crests.
“We have stuff moved and cleaned up,” he said. “We moved my boat, we’ll move my wife’s truck, and we’ll just have my truck here in case we decide to leave.”
On View Drive, many residents say they’re planning to stay to try to protect their property and look out for their neighbors.
View Drive is a forested cul-de-sac that forms a peninsula jutting into the Mendenhall River. It’s been hit the hardest by past floods. For a second year in a row, the street has been left without the protection of the flood wall constructed by the City and Borough of Juneau and the Army Corps. Officials have said in the past that the street has porous soil and have doubts that the homes could be protected.
The Mendenhall River surrounds homes on View Drive in the Mendenhall Valley on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
Mandy Mallott lives at the end of the cul-de-sac. She bought the house from a family she babysat for when she was growing up in Juneau. It looks out over Stroller White Mountain, where her father died in 2005.
“It’s a very spiritual place to us,” she said. “It’s a private place, and we’ll do what we can to protect it.”
She and her family spent Tuesday evening moving their belongings up onto shelves in their garage. Last year, she worked with her neighbors to have contractors put up their own HESCO barriers around a few properties, and she said her home didn’t flood.
Mandy Mallott points over HESCO barriers to the Mendenhall River from her home on View Drive on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)
Although a federally sponsored buyout for her home and others on View Drive might be on the table — Mallott said she’s emotionally tied to the place, and sees a long-term solution designed by the Army Corps as her best option.
“That emergency tunnel fix gives us all a lot of hope,” she said.
Mallott and her family are tribal citizens, and she said she’s grateful for the dozens of sandbags that the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska dropped off on Tuesday.
Residents of the Riverview Senior Living facility were about 50-50 split on whether to evacuate on Wednesday afternoon, said its Executive Director René Bryant. This year, new HESCO barriers are now standing between the Mendenhall River and the two-story assisted living and memory care facility.
She said the roughly 70 residents have a choice whether to stay or evacuate, and they are providing transportation to a nearby emergency shelter at St. Paul’s Catholic Church after an early dinner on Wednesday evening. Bryant said additional transportation to evacuate will be provided Thursday if needed.
“We are respecting everybody’s rights, while contacting family members to make these decisions as well,” Bryant said.
Glacial lake outburst flooding begins on the Mendenhall River below the Mendenhall Glacier on Aug 11, 2026. Officials issued an evacuation advisory for roughly 5,000 residents in the area. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
For questions and resources, call the local 24/7 flood hotline at 907-500-0890.
Alaska’s capital city has issued an evacuation advisory for the densely-populated Mendenhall Valley area on Wednesday as glacial outburst flooding begins.
Officials and the public are closely watching the Mendenhall Glacier, where climate-change driven melting results in water filling an ice-dammed lake called Suicide Basin each year. That lake eventually bursts and billions of gallons of water are released down the Mendenhall River, threatening suburban neighborhoods nearby.
The National Weather Service forecasts the flooding in the Mendenhall River will peak on Thursday morning between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.
“Evacuating is absolutely the best way to keep yourselves, your neighbors, and first responders safe as we respond to this flood,” said Ryan O’Shaughnessy, emergency manager for the City and Borough of Juneau at a news conference on Wednesday.
Ryan O’Shaughnessy, emergency manager for the City and Borough of Juneau, Ginny Nadolny, commander of US Coast Guard Southeast Sector (center) and Sabrina Grubitz, public safety manager for Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (left) speak at a news conference ahead of the glacial outburst flood in Juneau on Aug 12, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Scientists with the National Weather Service estimate the flooding to peak between 16.1 to 16.6 feet. That’s similar to last year’s flood where the river peaked at a record-breaking 16.65 feet.
The scale of flooding is uncertain, and depends largely on whether sand bag barriers erected along the Mendenhall River hold.
In the event that water bursts through the barriers, CBJ will issue an emergency flash-flood alert to all local cell phones, similar to an Amber alert.
Last year, local, state and federal agencies erected the new barriers along the river, where they largely prevented major flood damage. Thirty-five homes were affected by the flood, with six sustaining major flood damage. Some homes had up to five feet of flooding water in living spaces, according to city reports. In 2024, there were no barriers and flooding damaged nearly 300 homes.
This year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local partners worked to fortify those sand bag barriers along the Mendenhall River. In some areas, the barriers were constructed higher, up to 16 feet. They were extended in other areas across 1.8 miles of additional riverbank, said U.S. Army Corps Brigadier General Joseph Goetz at a news conference on Tuesday. The Army Corps has also installed roughly 40 industrial pumps to control seepage, and distributed an estimated 225,000 sandbags.
But this year officials issued an evacuation advisory for an area nearly double the size of last year’s — including roughly 1,900 homes — in case the barriers fail. Officials are calling that a worst case scenario.
Ryan O’Shaughnessy said census data shows the evacuation area includes an estimated 5,000 residents.
“I know this community has experienced this flood before, but we can’t be complacent,” said Ken Murphy, a safety officer with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, on Tuesday. “What happened last year may or may not happen this year.”
Residents are asked to evacuate the area by 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Sand bag barriers newly constructed this year in the lower part of the Mendenhall River below Brotherhood Bridge are seen from Meadow Lane in Juneau on Aug 8, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Officials said there is a risk of tree-strikes damaging the barriers and causing major flooding, and urged the public to take extra precautions, evacuate and avoid the river area entirely.
“The risk is real,” Murphy said. “Debris, erosion, unstable banks, changing water levels, and hidden hazards make the river dangerous. If you’re near the river or within the flood zone, you’re in danger. There is no safe reason to approach the water during this event. This is not a normal event, even though it reoccurs.”
Officials said they will be monitoring the river and barriers by livestream cameras and by drone throughout the flood, with emergency crews staged nearby ready to respond.
Residents can monitor Suicide Basin through a National Weather Service monitoring page. Officials recommend signing up for emergency alerts and reviewing Mendenhall River inundation maps. KTOO Public Media has set up several livestreams to monitor the flooding event. There is an emergency shelter at the former Floyd Dryden Middle School staffed by the American Red Cross.
The Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, Alaska’s most-visited tourist destination, surrounding the Mendenhall Glacier and Mendenhall Lake below is closing on Wednesday afternoon.
A joint emergency incident command has been established to monitor and respond to the flood. That includes the National Weather Service, City and Borough of Juneau, Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The City and Borough of Juneau are planning to issue a larger evacuation advisory for the 2026 glacial outburst flooding event. (Screenshot of CBJ evacuation advisory map)
Mendenhall overview from the National Weather Service
NOTN- The city of Juneau has entered a heightened state of readiness after officials confirmed just this morning that Suicide Basin is full, meaning the anticipated Glacial Lake Outburst Flood in the Capitol city could happen at any time.
“We call this the set phase, where people should be prepared to evacuate.” Said Mayor Beth Weldon, “But it could still be days, if any. We’re all getting used to this. It could be within 24 hours, or even as much as five or six days until the basin releases.”
Weldon said the timing of any potential outburst flood remains uncertain. The City is in the “Set” phase of it’s ‘Ready, Set, Go’ framework, which means residents affected by the GLOF should stay vigilant and continue to check in with emergency officials, have a go bag packed and be ready to activate a plan of safety.
According to the National Weather Service, in the past it has taken up to 6 days for the main event to start after the basin is full.
City officials urged residents to closely follow evacuation notices and stay away from flood control structures, particularly the Hesco barriers along vulnerable stretches of riverbank.
“Please do not climb up on the Hesco barriers,” Weldon said. “If they fail, it’s going to be catastrophic, and they could fail in a moment’s notice. You will not have time to run or move.”
if you have any questions, you can call the flood hotline at 907-500-0890 for information and updates.
“Everybody, try and be safe, and please abide by the evacuation notice,” Weldon said. “Again, everybody stay safe.”
A road sign marks the road towards the Lower Kuskokwim School District offices and the Bethel High School on October 9, 2023. The district is a recipient of Alaska Native Education Program grant funding. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
The U.S. Department of Education is expected to award $41.3 million in grant funding through the Alaska Native Education Program to 26 Alaska grantees after some delay, according to an announcement from Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
The grant funding was expected on July 1, but has been delayed more than a month. Grantees alerted Murkowski’s office they had not yet received the funding, prompting Murkowski to press the U.S. Sec. of Education Linda McMahon to release the awarded funding, according to the statement on Aug. 5.
“Last week, I raised this issue with Secretary McMahon, and I’m pleased she agreed to expedite the obligation of the funds for the Alaska Native Education Program grants that Congress appropriated earlier this year,” Sen. Murkowski wrote.
The Alaska Native Education Program provides federal funding to “meet the unique education needs of Alaska Natives” and to support education programs to benefit Alaska Native people, according to the program website.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Education’s grant office for the program did not give a reason for the delay or specify when the funds will be dispensed after a query on Friday.
The grants are awarded to Tribes, tribal organizations and school districts with a majority of Alaska Native students to support a variety of initiatives across a three-year grant period.
“Grants provide, for example, culturally relevant curriculum, tutoring and other academic supports, indigenous language revitalization, workforce development opportunities, teacher professional development, postsecondary planning and support, and success, early childhood education, and afterschool programming,” Murkowski said in the statement.
“I will continue to champion this program and work with the Department to ensure this funding is administered more expeditiously going forward,” she said.
Grantees include several early learning and literacy programs. Millions are slated for Indigenous language, art, science, and medicine including $2.1 million for the Baby Raven Reads project by Sealaska Heritage Institute and $1.4 million for tutoring and college readiness programs through the Rural Indigenous Students College Readiness Alliance launched by the Bering Strait and Lower Kuskokwim School Districts, two of Alaska’s largest, rural districts.
Rosita Kaaháni Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Native non-profit corporation focused on Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, said her organization was one of the grantees that alerted Murkwoski’s office to the delay. Sealaska has not received its grant funds yet.
The Sealaska Cultural Values Totem Pole represents all three tribes of Southeast Alaska – Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon)
Worl said in an interview Friday that federal funds and support for Alaska Native communities is critical, given Alaska’s history of suppressing Native education and language.
“So these programs have helped us overcome the effects of that kind of suppression,” she said. “Our data shows definitely that it promotes and enhances Native education, and we show that through all of our evaluations…it’s led to higher academic performance.”
She said SHI has seen success in early childhood programs like Baby Raven Reads project and initiatives to support students continuing education, which reduces drop out rates. “We’re still behind non-natives, but we’re gaining ground,” she said.
Worl said the federal support helps Sealaska Heritage Institute provide annual funding for education across Southeast Alaska where state funding has fallen short. SHI provides $1 million each year to the Juneau School District and $2 million annually to the University of Alaska Southeast, as well as funding to support school districts across the region for teacher training, arts and language programs.
“It’s a program that has proven benefits,” she said. “There, there’s no doubt about it.”
NOTN- Federal officials say they are preparing both short- and long-term defenses as another glacial outburst flood is expected to hit Juneau’s Mendenhall River in the coming days, continuing a pattern of annual summer flooding that has put homes and lives at risk.
In a briefing Thursday, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has strengthened temporary protections ahead of the anticipated 2026 glacial outburst flood, and they’ve been gearing up to launch an unprecedented effort to drain water from Suicide Basin, the source of the destructive floods.
Sullivan said the Corps and local partners have invested about $45 million to make Hesco barrier floodwalls along the Mendenhall River taller and wider, and deployed roughly 40% of the Corps’ global pump inventory to Juneau as a backup if the river overtops or breaches the barriers.
“The fact that one of America’s capital cities in our country floods every summer at the risk of not only property but lives, you know, these floods are very risky for not just the safety of our own citizens, it’s a huge, unique challenge.” Sullivan said.” “The Corps of Engineers now has deployed 40% of all the pumps in the Corps of Engineers inventory for the world… in Juneau, just in case.”
Telle said the Corps will move quickly after this year’s flood to seek private-sector proposals for a faster, less costly way to evacuate water from Suicide Basin.
“We believe that evacuating water from Suicide Basin is fundamentally the best way to prevent this from happening in the future,” Telle said, ““We have a phenomenon here in Juneau that’s unlike any other in our entire portfolio.”
According to stories by both KTOO and the Juneau Independent, a local mining executive presented ideas that could cut the cost in half of teh proposed Lake Tap solution in half, groups like Juneau Flood Solutions have supported this effort.
Officials warned the public not to be complacent even with higher barriers in place, saying debris impacts remain a major threat and urging residents to treat the coming flood as a serious safety risk.
The UnCruise ship Wilderness Legacy is seen in an undated file photo provided by UnCruise. (Handout photo)
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Editor’s note: This article, initially published Friday, was updated Sunday morning with a statement from Zuckerberg.
A small cruise ship operating in Southeast Alaska made an unexpected detour on Monday night to help a 21-foot skiff that ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau.
Michael Love, a software developer from New York City, was a passenger aboard the cruise ship and described the event on social media.
What got his attention the most wasn’t the rescue itself — it was when the captain announced that the yacht of billionaire Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg was closer and hadn’t answered the radio call for help.
“There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this,” he said in a post on the social media network Bluesky.
Vessel tracking services in the area back up that account — they show the $300 million, 387-foot yacht Launchpad slowing to a halt outside Farragut Bay as the UnCruise Adventures ship Wilderness Legacy steams around and past the Launchpad, stops at the apparent site of the skiff, then tows it into sheltered Farragut Bay.
Through a Bluesky message, Love said it was nice to be on a boat that was engaging with its surroundings in a positive way.
“Frankly, if I was Mark Zuckerberg I would be absolutely ecstatic at a chance to do something helpful for someone in need and maybe get some good PR out of it,” he said.
Social media accounts responding to Love’s account accused the yacht’s crew of violating international agreements that mandate aid from the nearest ship to one in distress.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Marine Exchange of Alaska, which monitors ship traffic in Alaska, there was no distress call — just a general request for assistance.
Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist Shannon Shepard said by email that the Coast Guard heard the call for help just after 9:30 p.m. Monday night.
“At approximately 9:56 p.m., the Coast Guard determined they were not in distress and issued a marine assistance request broadcast on their behalf,” she said.
John Hollingsworth is the chief operations officer of the Marine Exchange, which is based in Juneau and repeated the broadcast.
“We did assist the Coast Guard with callouts on our radio and (were) able to hail the Wilderness Legacy who ended up rendering assistance,” he said.
“From my experience, I know that situations like this contain myriad details for the vessels involved, so the AIS (tracking) snippet you obtained only reveals one of those details,” he said by email. “I do know that Wilderness Legacy is an UnCruise vessel and is very familiar with Alaska waters, so that may have contributed to them rendering assistance quickly.”
No information was available Friday about who may have been aboard the Launchpad on Monday evening. The Launchpad has been in Southeast Alaska for much of the summer.
After the initial publication of this article, a spokesperson for Mark Zuckerberg emailed a statement: “Mark and his family were not on board at the time of the incident. As the Coast Guard noted, the boat was not in distress, and by the time the crew reviewed the Coast Guard contact on a different radio channel from the one they were operating on, the assist was already underway. We’re grateful all parties are safe.”
The Wilderness Legacy’s detour is the second incidence of aid rendered by a small cruise ship in Southeast Alaska within two weeks. On July 30, the National Geographic Quest assisted a family who had to swim to shore in Glacier Bay National Park after a humpback whale sank their sailboat.
Dan Blanchard, who owns UnCruise, said he wasn’t initially aware of the Wilderness Legacy’s detour because “this kind of aid is such a common thing that it does not always rise to my attention.”
Sarah Scoltock, a spokeswoman for UnCruise, said the Wilderness Legacy was able to refuel the skiff after towing it into a sheltered area.
“The next day the (Wilderness Legacy’s) captain, Sean Manske, contacted them and received word they made it safely to Petersburg,” she said by email.
Six candidates for Alaska governor and lieutenant governor participated in a debate on education hosted by the Alaska Superintendents Association in Juneau on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith)
Six candidates for Alaska governor from across the political spectrum appeared side-by-side in a room full of superintendents and school officials in Juneau and promised that boosting education funding would be a priority of their administration, if elected.
Six candidates participated in the debate, out of 17 running for governor this year. Randy Hoffbeck, a candidate for Lieutenant Governor who stood in for his running mate, Bill Walker. They discussed their plans for education in a two-hour event hosted by the Alaska Superintendents’ Association on July 30. 2026 Voter Guide.
The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.
The gubernatorial candidates included Republican Click Bishop, Democrat Tom Begich, Republican Matt Heilala, Republican Lesil Maguire, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, and Independent Hoffbeck.
The panel was moderated by Randy Trani, superintendent of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, with questions organized by the board of the Alaska Superintendents Association. A group of roughly 50 superintendents and school administrators from across Alaska attended as part of the association’s summer conference event in Juneau.
All six candidates agreed Alaska education has been underfunded by the Dunleavy administration, with several candidates characterizing public education as “in crisis.”
A record 12 schools were closed this year, amid millions in budget shortfalls, and others have cut teachers, programs and extracurricular activities. Districts reported funding has not kept pace with skyrocketing operating costs, amid declining enrollment as families leave the state or move to homeschool programs.
Trani said afterward he found all the candidates “super impressive,” particularly their ideas for funding education.
“They understand that there’s a fiscal reality problem in the state and it has to be addressed,” he said. “They all have different ideas of how they’re going to do it, but at least they’re leading with it as a top priority.”
Superintendents and school officials from across Alaska gathered for a summer conference in Juneau listen to a gubernatorial candidate debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Luke Meinert is superintendent of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, which has closed seven schools in the past five years due to budget shortfalls and declining enrollment. He said he was impressed with the candidates, their willingness to invest in education and their experience working on education issues in Alaska.
“They’ve been in the game,” Meinert said. “I think maybe every one of them went to public schools here in Alaska, and so they had experienced public schools at a time where we were investing a lot in our school districts. And it was great to hear that they want to get back to those times because that can improve our retention and recruitment efforts for teachers, and then obviously student outcomes on the other end of that.”
Hoffbeck, who is running for Lieutenant Governor on Bill Walker’s ticket, did not go to Alaska public schools, but Walker did.
The candidates shared their plans for funding for Alaska districts, tackling billions of dollars in deferred maintenance, boosting recruitment and retention of teachers and staff, and providing them healthcare and retirement, as well as views on local control of school boards, fiscal plans for the state and other issues.
Funding for education
Despite Alaska school districts reporting severe budget shortfalls and cutting teachers and programs, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has opposed sustained increases to per student funding, arguing against more funding without changes to policy. He has particularly sought changes related to charter schools and homeschool programs.
Democrat Tom Begich discusses his education policy platform, with Independent Randy Hoffbeck (left) and Republican Click Bishop (right) at an education debate on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
But all six candidates agreed that schools have not been adequately funded under the Dunleavy administration, and that stable and reliable funding for districts is essential. They all said boosting investment in education is a priority of their campaigns.
Begich, Hoffbeck, Kreiss-Tomkins and McGuire said they support “forward funding” education and providing budgets to districts earlier in the year to provide more stability to districts. The state budget is currently finalized in June.
Begich said he would advocate for an immediate boost to per student funding, known as the base student allocation — the core of the state’s funding formula — to account for rising inflation. He proposed increasing the figure by roughly 15% to $7,680 per child and tie increases with inflation each year. He said he would also support fully funding pre-K to be available in all school districts.
Bishop said he would focus particularly on investing in career and technical education, referring to his experience growing up in a family of operating engineers and working in construction. “I’m going to push that till the day I die,” he said. “Nothing wrong with four-year degrees or higher. Career and tech ed needs to be improved upon in this state, and I’m the person that can do it working with you.”
McGuire and Kreiss-Tomkins said they support reviewing and revising the state’s complex funding formula to ensure districts are adequately funded. Both McGuire and Kreiss-Tomkins as well as Heilala said education has become a politically divisive issue which has obstructed progress. Kreiss-Tomkins called education policy a “Pandora’s box” avoided by lawmakers not wanting to take political risks.
Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a candidate for governor, speaks at a debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Kreiss-Tomkins and Hoffbeck said they support a constitutional amendment to create a special fund for education separate from the state’s budget. “A constitutional amendment’s only way to dedicate funds in Alaska that can effectively politically de-risk education funding going forward, and also largely account for inflation,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
Hoffbeck agreed there is a lack of trust between districts and the state under Dunleavy, which he said must be repaired. He said he believes adequate funding varies by school district across the state, and he and Walker both support a review of state funding for education by an independent third party to study and assess how much funding is needed by each school.
“Just throwing more money at it doesn’t fix the problem. We need to be surgical on how we add that money,” he said. “Yes, absolutely, we are underfunded. We need more funding, but we need to fund very surgically as we go forward.”
Teacher recruitment and retention
The candidates agreed investing in hiring and retaining teachers is a major priority, but diverged on the question of whether the state should revive a defined benefit retirement plan for educators.
Bishop and Heilala said they would focus education investments on boosting teacher pay. Heilala said funding should be more focused and efficient, and directed to teachers. “I believe teachers need pay raises. I think they probably need 15 to 30% pay raises, and of course, that’ll happen with a booming economy,” he said.
Independent Randy Hoffbeck, candidate for lieutenant governor running with Bill Waker, speaks at a debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Hoffbeck said teacher recruitment and retention should focus on training and hiring local teachers, particularly for rural Alaska. “The local teachers would stay in the rural communities,” he said, referring to his time working in the North Slope Borough. “And so I think we need to have a robust local recruitment process, including certification programs that make it possible for somebody in the village that may not have a four-year degree.”
Bishop, Begich and Kreiss-Tomkins support reviving the defined benefit retirement system for teachers, and said they believe offering that again would boost recruitment.
The state defined benefit retirement system for public employees was ended in 2006, after the system accrued a multi-billion dollar shortfall. Lawmakers passed legislation to revive the program this year, but Dunleavy vetoed it.
Begich said he would also want the state to provide medical benefits in a new defined benefit retirement plan, as well as grants for teacher housing.
Heilala disagreed, and said the defined benefit system is the “biggest mistake.” He said a 401(k) retirement plan has greater certainty to create income.
Republican Lesil McGuire speaks at a gubernatorial candidate debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Hoffbeck said he has concerns about a defined benefit retirement system as some districts would not be able to afford it.
McGuire said she does not support a defined benefit retirement plan, but supports a retirement system that the state can afford. She said she supports a student loan forgiveness program for teaching in Alaska, and low interest loans for housing to boost recruitment and retention.
“I think housing is a huge issue. Let’s make Alaska the place you want to come teach,” she said.
School maintenance backlog
The candidates all agreed that addressing the state’s multi-billion dollar backlog in deferred maintenance in K-12 schools and the University of Alaska system would be a major priority of their administrations, and presented various ideas on how to fund it.
Republican Click Bishop speaks at a gubernatorial candidate debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Bishop said part of his plan for funding education would be to levy an “education head tax,” a flat-rate tax per Alaskan regardless of income to pay for school maintenance. He said he’d introduced similar legislation when he was a member of the Alaska State Senate.
“It’s ludicrous that we have this much of a deferred maintenance schedule,” he said.
Begich said he supports the state paying to help boroughs and districts with school bond reimbursement, which is debt incurred by voter-approved bonds to fund school maintenance. He also supports the state backing a general obligation bond to generate hundreds of millions to address the existing maintenance backlog list.
McGuire, Hoffbeck and Kreiss-Tomkins agreed issuing bonds was a good idea. Hoffbeck and Kreiss-Tomkins also said prioritizing hiring local contractors for construction and maintenance is important.
Kriess-Tomkins noted maintaining schools is an obligation under Alaska’s Constitution. He also cautioned that there will be changes to schools with declining numbers of students as a result of outward migration from the state and families having fewer children. He said he’d want to invest in a system to keep up with school repairs in order to avoid large costly repairs like roof replacements decades in the making.
Republican Matt Heilala speaks at a gubernatorial candidate debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Heilala said the deferred maintenance backlog is a challenge, but sees opportunities for consolidating schools with “goodwill.” He said he believes “connectivity” will change infrastructure needs and said he sees artificial intelligence as a “supersonic tsunami” hitting American society now, and creating opportunities for education. “Education is going to be disrupted and changed. I believe in a good way,” he said. “There’s a lot of great opportunity, but we need to approach it with optimism.”
McGuire said a variety of solutions are needed to address school maintenance and repairs. “We’re so far behind at this point. We’re actually bordering up against litigation,” she said.
She cited legislative hearings and public outcry around the state-run boarding school, Mt. Edgecumbe High School this year when a quarter of students disenrolled sparking public focus on deteriorating school facilities.
“It was a stomach-turning event,” McGuire said. “So I think there are a variety of solutions. We need to be brave and bold, pull it out, assess what we need to do, and then look at solutions and address it immediately.”
Fired federal workers formerly with the U.S. Forest Service based at the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau speak at the Alaska State Capito; on March 21, 2025, about their experiences. The Forest Service was among the federal agencies in Alaska most heavily affected by job cuts. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska lost a higher percentage of its federal workforce last year than almost all U.S. states to sweeping Trump administration cuts, according to a newly published analysis by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
By the end of 2025, Alaska’s federal workforce was 10.5% smaller than it had been at the end of the prior year, according to the analysis, published in Alaska Economic Trends, the monthly magazine of the department’s research section. In the fourth quarter of 2025, after many workers accepted buyouts or early retirement, the state’s federal workforce had dropped by 1,607 from the total in the fourth quarter of 2024, to 13,767 from 15,374 the year prior, according to the analysis.
The job losses came through mass firings and cuts made by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the government-reducing campaign led by trillionaire Elon Musk that started shortly after Donald Trump took office for his second term. To a large extent, job losses were concentrated at the end of the year.
Calculated by the annual average, Alaska lost about 4.5% of its federal jobs in 2025. Only Maryland, which lost 6.5% of its federal jobs, and New Mexico, which lost 5.8% of its federal jobs, lost more.
Federal job losses reduced Alaska’s total earnings by $36.5 million on average in 2025, according to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development analysis, and they brought federal employment in Alaska to the lowest level since at least 1990.
Much of the cutting in Alaska came in the U.S. Department of Defense’s civilian workforce. Calculated by annual average, 340 defense related jobs were lost to the DOGE cuts, but the fourth-quarter loss was calculated at 755 jobs.
The large amount of job losses in the Department of Defense category was a bit surprising, said Karinne Wiebold, the state labor economist who wrote the Trends article. “I assumed early on that the DoD might be one of the less affected departments and that our strong military presence might insulate us,” she said by email.
Federal agencies that sustained high numbers of job losses included the U.S. Forest Service, which had 180 fewer employees at the end of 2025 than in late 2024, the Bureau of Land Management, which had lost 133 jobs at the end of the year, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which had lost 101 of its workers by the end of 2025.
The fallout from the job losses continues, and the public does not yet have a complete picture, Wiebold said. “I do think the public is aware of the federal job losses and that they have been deep and a bit unpredictable,” she said. “I don’t know if the public generally understands what the ramifications of the cuts will be — federal employees perform a wide variety of oftentimes highly specialized work.”
Certain parts of the state were harder hit than others. The Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, which has been reliant on military-related employment, and parts of Southeast Alaska, where employment related to the Tongass National Forest is important, are among those regions with steeper job losses by percentage, according to the analysis.
Alaska’s ranking among states hit by DOGE-related job cuts could change, Wiebold said. Data from this year has yet to be fully analyzed, she said. “Even in the first parts of 2026, there are reports of the rankings shifting somewhat,” she said.
