Just days after signing a bill that the courts said would provide certainty for the state’s scholarship program, the Dunleavy administration is asking the fund be left in limbo.
And as if to put a fine point on the reality of budget cuts, these cuts will impact low-income families more than others. All but one of the targeted schools are Title I, meaning they have a larger proportion of students who are eligible for free and reduced lunches.
The Legislature won’t be helping Eastman out with the lawsuit seeking to bar him from holding elected office.
The investigation, however, found they didn’t break the law or that Gov. Dunleavy was directly calling the shots on the firing of the exec.
To date, less than $1 million has been raised on both sides of the question.
A hard deadline for the investigation to be completed or released publicly has not been announced.
There’s no immediate effect on state finances, but continued losses would reduce available cash for services and dividends.
A lot can and will change over the next three months—and it’s entirely possible that a single fundraiser will close some of these gaps—but it’s a good look at the state of the race for the Alaska Legislature, which will go a long way to determining what kind of policies we see take shape in Alaska over the next two years on everything from the state’s budget, the dividend and abortion.
Critics estimate the convention would cost between $17 million and $20 million.
With the new school year approaching, school districts throughout the state are struggling to properly staff schools and classrooms. The national teacher shortage, which pre-dates the pandemic, is uniquely felt in Alaska, which has historically relied on recruiting teachers from the Lower 48.