Among the most visible signs of Alaska’s shrinking population: several school districts are considering school closures.
School districts in Anchorage and Kodiak have already decided to close at least one school later this year, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board will vote on Feb. 4 whether to close five elementary schools. Meanwhile, districts in Ketchikan, Sitka and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough have also warned residents of looming budget shortfalls that may result in school closures or consolidation of programs.
Anchorage and Fairbanks have framed their closure discussions as “right-sizing,” arguing that fewer school buildings are needed to serve a declining number of students.
Nowhere has seen a more acute decrease in students than Fairbanks. Alaska has 3,600 fewer students than it did 25 years ago, and the Fairbanks school district accounts for two-thirds of that loss.
Brandy Harty is a Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board member. Born and raised in Fairbanks, a school she attended as a child, Joy Elementary, has already been closed by the district. She voted to close Ben Eielson Jr./Sr. High School last year, and will vote next month on whether to close several more schools.
“Looking at the state of what's going on, it's why I joined the board, because when you see a problem, you try to fix it. That's what I wanted to do, and I have tried my damnedest to fix the problem,” Harty said. “But the problem isn't at our school board, it's in Juneau, with funding and with the way we've written our legislation that's beyond our control. Unless that fixes and our schools improve, we're just going to see more and more people leaving the state.”
District officials point to inflation and roughly a decade of flat state funding as contributing factors to massive budget deficits, along with continued outmigration of residents from the state.
Harty argues that state funding has fallen behind what Alaska schools need to stay afloat, while admitting that the school district also needs to consolidate.
The five Fairbanks area schools up for closure include elementary schools in the rural communities of Salcha and Two Rivers. If closed, those students would have to ride a bus over 30 miles into Fairbanks for class. Harty said she’s most concerned about the future for students at rural schools, as well as urban students who need additional support like at Hunter Elementary, where she previously taught.
“We're supposed to take care of each other in our communities,” Harty said. “I am worried that if that safety net that we've built that is Hunter, that's been in our community for decades, is closed, what's going to happen to those kids?”
Another significant change in student population has been the outmigration from neighborhood schools to charter and correspondence schools, which impacts the funding each district receives for those students. Over the last 25 years, 10,000 Alaska students have moved from neighborhood public schools to correspondence programs, and 32 schools have been closed across the state.
Alaska Education Commissioner Deena Bishop said school closures are a complex issue. She said public schools need to adapt to a changing environment in order to attract students.
“I think we can all agree that change needs to happen,” Bishop said. “We see empty space in schools, we see not the best use, we see that we want improvement in student outcomes and opportunities. We don't want to lose our music programs, we don't want to lose this, so in order for Alaska to adjust to the changes that have naturally happened, like other industries have changed.”
Nearly one-fifth of public school students in Alaska are enrolled in correspondence school classes. The funding formula used to determine how much schools receive from the state does not provide neighborhood public schools with money for the correspondence students who still take classes in person, which is an area Bishop said could see improvement. Increased personnel costs due to health care have strained school districts financially alongside inflation, but Bishop said an increase in state funding alone would not solve the financial issues districts are facing.
“The pressure in the last 10 years of closing schools hasn't been because kids left the state of Alaska,” Bishop said. “What they're doing is choosing a different school type, and then that offers them more flexibility. So then, how do we then support that and utilize schools too at the same time for other things?”
Kevin Berry is an economics professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and the parent of an Anchorage student who will have new classmates next fall due to school closures. Berry said despite the emotional process of closing a neighborhood school, students and the surrounding community can benefit from consolidations.
“These consolidations don't necessarily mean there'll be larger class sizes and worse outcomes, because they're not only being driven by insufficient funding, they're also being driven by demographic changes in the state,” Berry said.
Berry said the impacts of school closures reach beyond the classroom, but they’re more damaging in rural communities, and less noticeable in urban areas like Anchorage and Fairbanks. He also noted that inflation and outmigration are factors outside of school district control.
“Yes, there is less funding because the BSA didn't keep up with inflation,” Berry said. “That being said, the case for consolidation based on the number of students we're serving, is in some ways a related but separate issue.”
Leaders of the Alaska House and Senate say public school funding is a top priority this year. They’re currently weighing a proposal to boost per-student spending by more than 30% over three years.
