By Bill Bjork, NEA-Alaska President
November AKtivist04

First the good news: On November 5, Governor Murkowski announced his proposal to forward fund an increase in K-12 funding for the next two fiscal years to cover the impact of inflation and the PERS/TRS increases. NEA-Alaska commends the governor for his decision to raise the issue of K-12 school funding early. Forward funding would provide predictability and stability of funding. And we all know that additional funds are critically needed.

Now the bad news: The governor's proposal is simply not sufficient. The additional funding in his proposal addresses only two portions of the K-12 funding problem. Think of school funding as a three-legged stool. One leg is the PERS/TRS shortfall. The second leg is the annual impact of inflation. And the third leg is the need to rebuild adequate K-12 funding. This third leg of the K-12 funding stool is missing from the governor's proposal. One year of inflation proofing does not make up for two decades of under-funding.

Every day in schools across the state, Alaska's children feel the impact of inadequate state funding. Chronic under-funding has allowed inflation to devastate the purchasing power of every school district. It has undermined the quality of our children's education through cuts in academic and vocational programs, overcrowded classrooms, loss of extracurricular activities (or huge jumps in student activity fees), and a shrinking pool of quality teachers, support professionals and administrators.

And the good news again: Although the deficit created by 20 years of chronic under-funding cannot be rectified this year or the next, it's time to work with the legislature to address the critically needed third leg of the school funding stool. Last year the governor and legislature got a start on the problem. The $82 million addressed PERS/TRS and one year of inflation – and also made a small payment toward reducing the deficit.