A bill boosting education funding, the top priority of the Democrat-heavy coalitions controlling the House and Senate, arrived on the governor’s proverbial desk Thursday morning. That’s after lawmakers passed House Bill 57 Wednesday by a combined vote of 48 to 11.
But Gov. Mike Dunleavy has not been shy about using his veto pen on education bills. He's vetoed two in the last two years. And at least so far, the Legislature has come up short of overriding him.
This time, though, lawmakers say things might be different. Alaska Public Media’s Eric Stone spoke with Alaska News Nightly host Wesley Early with a look at what the future holds.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Wesley Early: So, where do things go from here?
Eric Stone: Well, Wesley, as you said, House Bill 57 has been transmitted to Dunleavy, so he is in control of what happens next. He has until May 19 to either sign or veto the bill — otherwise, according to the Alaska Constitution, it’ll pass into law automatically.
WE: Let’s back up a second. What exactly does House Bill 57 bill do?
ES: So, the first thing it does is it provides a long-term funding boost to public schools around the state. And that is every type of public school — regular brick-and-mortar schools, like your neighborhood elementary school, but also charter schools and even things like correspondence homeschool and boarding schools.
The state has this funding formula for all public schools, and the foundation of that formula is something called the base student allocation. It’s the basic funding the state provides for each student. This bill would raise it by $700, and that would change, in state law, the number that determines how much money schools get from the state, and to some extent, local governments, every year. Coalition lawmakers, members of the Democrat-heavy bipartisan caucuses in the House and Senate, say they think schools need a lot more money than that, but with oil prices low, right now, money is tight.
Of course, the governor could still veto the bill.
WE: And are you expecting him to veto it?
ES: That is up in the air. He has been vocal on social media about the various education bills, but he has not said a word about the final version of this one publicly, as of when I’m talking to you on Thursday afternoon.
So, one thing about this bill. It’s not just a funding boost. If it was, he’d definitely veto it, as we saw when he kiboshed House Bill 69, a larger funding boost, a couple weeks ago. Majority lawmakers negotiated with the minority to cram a bunch more education policy changes into the bill, and that includes a bunch of stuff the governor has said he wants.
There’s a by-default ban on student cellphone use, unless the local school board approves something different. There’s a boost to school bus and other pupil transportation funding. There are a bunch of changes the governor wanted to charter school laws — making it easier to create one, renew it, and also changes to the procedures when a school district wants to terminate a charter school. And there’s also a new program that would financially reward school districts if elementary students do well on reading tests — but only if, and this is a big if, a separate tax bill on Outside internet-based companies passes.
At the same time, though, the governor didn’t get everything he wanted out of this bill. And at least as of Monday — and at that point, the bill looked pretty similar to the final version that passed on Wednesday — Dunleavy’s education commissioner, Deena Bishop, was emailing superintendents and telling them the bill might get vetoed. That is, unless lawmakers made a few more changes to align with his priorities.
Bishop’s email urged superintendents to reach out to their legislators and tell them that. At least one actually did, according to a co-chair of the House Education Committee, although she says it didn’t actually change her mind.
Anyway — the bill might get vetoed, or it might not. But lawmakers say they’re confident it’ll become law one way or another.
WE: And what's making lawmakers so confident? I mean, we saw them come up one vote short last year on another pretty big education compromise bill that Dunleavy vetoed.
ES: That’s right. So the lessons of Senate Bill 140, that's the old bill, are still fresh in a lot of folks’ minds. That’s the bill lawmakers fell short of overriding last year.
And it’s also been a year-plus of dire warnings from school leaders saying they’re looking at deep cuts to programs and staff. That, and there was an election last November where education funding was the No. 1 issue for a lot of people.
And at this point, we have a lot of people coming out publicly and saying they’ll override the governor if it comes down to it. Six minority Republicans have told me they would vote to override. That would be enough to get to the 40-vote threshold, assuming all 35 members of the House and Senate majorities vote to override.
And these are not just moderates — these are real-deal conservatives, people who tend to side with Dunleavy on a lot of things.
Heck, yesterday, I was in the hallway, talking to Rep. Sarah Vance, a very conservative Republican from Homer who has been an ally of Gov. Dunleavy. And even she is saying she’d vote to override — though, of course, she told me she’s planning to try and talk the governor into not vetoing it, and she hopes it doesn’t come to that, but she says she would.
WE: Why would she vote to override?
ES: Well, Sarah Vance says she thinks the policies embedded in the bill will make a big difference in how well the state’s students do. And the thing is, if this bill doesn’t pass, we’d probably end up with another year of one-time funding — without all of these policies attached. That’s how she’s thinking about it.
WE: So, the big question: Is there a veto-proof majority for this bill?
ES: Well, yes and no. Or, yes and maybe. If lawmakers stick to their public statements, there are, it seems like, 40-plus votes to override the veto on House Bill 57.
But, and this is a pretty big caveat, that’s not the only way Dunleavy could prevent the bill from taking effect. Alaska’s Constitution gives Dunleavy immense power over state spending with his line-item veto power.
So even if they change the base student allocation in state law, that number in the formula, it’s possible that Dunleavy could veto the funding behind that number. That would be unprecedented, and some House Democratic leaders say it could be unconstitutional, though that is very debatable.
But Dunleavy has been a big proponent of following formulas in state statute when it comes to the Permanent Fund dividend — he says things like, the formula the law, and I’m going to follow the law. That’s another whole discussion. But on that subject, here’s House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent.
"If House (Bill) 57 becomes law, the governor would then be, you know, not observing the law. And none of us know what's going to happen in the future, but I think the resolve that you see expressed by the House and Senate today is going to carry over and will not go away," Edgmon said.
And to overcome a veto of the funding, that takes a three quarters majority, or 45 votes. There is a lot of distance between 40 and 45, and even though we saw 48 lawmakers vote for this bill the first time around, not everybody is saying they're going to come out and override. Some folks are not saying that.
There’s also the issue of timing — an override vote on House Bill 57 could happen during the legislative session. A budget veto override would have to happen a lot later, weeks or months after lawmakers leave Juneau. So that is up in the air.
But honestly, Wesley, having been here last year when the last education compromise was vetoed, and the override failed, it just feels different this time around.
Whether it actually is different this time around or not, we will have to see.
