Alaska Ignored Warning Signs of a Budget Crisis. Now It Doesn’t Have Funding to Fix Crumbling Schools.

Alaska ignored warning signs of a budget crisis. Now it doesn’t have funding to fix crumbling schools.

Lawmakers only budgeted $40 million of the nearly $800 million that districts say is needed to fix and maintain schools to keep them safe and operating. Gov. Mike Dunleavy then vetoed more than two-thirds of that.

Alaska ignored budget crisis signs. Now, it doesn't have money to fix schools

Alaska has long ignored warning signs of a budget crisis. Now, it has no money to fix something that is posing serious health and safety risks to students and staff: crumbling rural schools.

Alaska Ignored Warning Signs of a Budget Crisis. Now It Doesn’t Have Funding to Fix Crumbling Schools.

Lawmakers only budgeted $40 million of the nearly $800 million that districts say is needed to fix and maintain schools to keep them safe and operating. Gov. Mike Dunleavy then vetoed more than two-thirds of that.

Alaska ignored budget crisis signs. Now, it doesn't have money to fix schools.

Alaska has long ignored warning signs of a budget crisis. Now, it has no money to fix something that is posing serious health and safety risks to students and staff: crumbling rural schools.

Alaska Ignored Warning Signs of a Budget Crisis. Now It Doesn’t Have Funding to Fix Crumbling Schools. - Chilkat Valley News

When Alaska House Speaker Bryce Edgmon toured the public school in Sleetmute last fall, he called the building “the poster child” for what’s wrong with the way the state pays to build and maintain schools. The tiny community 240 miles west of Anchorage had begged Alaska’s education department for nearly two decades for money to repair a leaky roof that over time had left part of the school on the verge of collapse. Seated at a cafeteria table af…