The Anchorage School Board voted 6-1 to approve a budget Tuesday night that makes $43 million in cuts by eliminating all middle school sports, three high school sports and the IGNITE program for gifted students. It also increases the student to teacher ratio by four for all grade levels.
Board member Kelly Lessens said the budget prioritizes student outcomes, despite significant cuts to special programs.
“I think it’s a wise decision, but I'm still not happy about what passage of this budget itself begins and what it represents, because our kids will not be served well by the budget that we have to prepare,” Lessens said.
The board is waiting to hear if the Legislature will agree to increase the Base Student Allocation — the state’s per-student funding formula — which would allow them to reverse some of the cuts. Lawmakers and the governor say they support boosting state funding for education. But so far, they haven't reached a compromise that could pass the House and Senate and be signed into law.
A bill from Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka, would add about $500 million over three years to the BSA. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has said he does not support the bill.
The board passed an amendment from Lessens and Carl Jacobs that details how most of the cuts will be reversed if the BSA is increased by $1,000.
Jacobs said the workload of administrative positions that were cut from the budget will fall on teachers. Those administrative positions would not be added back by the amendment. The spending plan in the amendment would add over 300 teachers to revert the district's student to teacher ratio back to 2016 levels.
“Our job is to support all students and I trust that administration has drafted a budget which we know may not be final but if it is this is a attempt to best serve every student with the resources that we are given,” Jacobs said.
The board heard six hours of passionate testimony over the last 3 weeks on nearly every aspect of the proposed budget cuts. The board received 39 additional written comments on the budget ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.
