A high cost of living and lack of pension strain Alaska teachers. Would bonuses help keep them? – Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU – Cory Hughes moved to a remote village in Alaska to teach, but even though it was dark in the winter and the bathroom in his housing unit was in the school’s preschool building, he was glad he could afford it. I plan on staying there and retiring. I have a sink that comes to my knees.

But Alaska is the only state in the U.S. that does not provide teacher pensions, and researchers say teacher pay and benefits have not kept up with other states. Hughes bought a house in Ohio, but she’s wondering how long she’ll stay in Nunapichuk, a southwest Alaskan village of 525 people she’s grown to love.

“I’ve been teaching for seven years and I won’t last more than a few months when I retire,” said Hughes, 28. It will end eventually, probably sooner or later. ”

School funding dominates Congress as lawmakers meet nearly 1,000 miles away in Juneau. School districts are facing teacher shortages and, in some cases, multi-million dollar deficits. They argue that unpredictable levels of state aid, coupled with fluctuating oil prices, make long-term planning nearly impossible.

Schools have had to cut programs, increase class sizes, and assign additional roles to teachers and administrators. Hughes was selected to help coach basketball, where he never played.

Teacher turnover is nothing new, and Alaska is not alone in its struggle to fill jobs. But the impact could be severe in expensive, hard-to-reach areas that rely on barges and planes for supplies, and in remote areas where polar bears are sometimes patrolled to keep residents safe. In some areas, eggs can cost more than $9 per dozen.

Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a former educator, is pushing for charter schools and a three-year program to test whether paying teachers $5,000 to $15,000 a year in bonuses will keep them on the job. . district.

[Gov. Dunleavy points to national study in his push to expand Alaska charter schools. It’s drawing scrutiny from lawmakers and school officials.]

Dunleavy doubts that simply increasing state aid to K-12 schools will turn around Alaska’s dismal performance on reading and math assessments. Alaska led the nation The proportion of students who were absent at least 10% in the 2021-22 school year has increased, and the number of children being educated at home has increased since the pandemic.

School officials don’t necessarily oppose the bonus idea, but say the district simply doesn’t have the resources it needs. They are calling for a significant and permanent increase in the state’s per-student funding formula to combat inflation and the high costs of energy and insurance.

“We’re not going to make things better if we’re constantly fighting for crumbs,” says St. Petersburg Superintendent Erika Krut Painter. She said her district’s budget has been boosted by the federal government and grants, but is now “at breaking point.”

Alaska residents receive annual dividend checks from the state’s Permanent Fund and are not subject to personal state income taxes. Although these are often claimed as perks, lawmakers have struggled over the past decade with budget deficits driven by fluctuating oil prices. As states continued to draw down savings and rely on Permanent Fund revenues to pay their bills, the public had little appetite to consider new taxes.

Even some lawmakers sympathetic to school officials’ pleas question whether the roughly $360 million in additional funding they’re seeking is politically realistic. The state has provided about $1.3 billion to K-12 school districts in the current budget year. Lawmakers approved a one-time increase of $175 million, but Dunleavy vetoed half of it.

Some school districts, including Anchorage, the state’s largest, are recruiting teachers from overseas. A group that has been involved in past lawsuits against the state over the adequacy of school funding is considering another lawsuit.

The state Senate passed a bill to reinstate the pension, but the outlook is uncertain nearly two decades after lawmakers abolished the system. The House Republican majority has proposed a bill that includes Dunleavy’s bonus plan, a charter clause and an increase in the program’s aid to districts by about $80 million, an amount that many lawmakers believe is insufficient. There is. It ran into early opposition during the full House session on Monday, with lawmakers deadlocked on the first vote on whether to move the bill up for consideration. Some lawmakers said the bill’s provisions had not been sufficiently scrutinized.

“Attracting teachers and keeping them in schools is not rocket science in terms of the combination of compensation and working conditions,” said Dana DeFeo, director of the Alaska Center for Educational Policy Research. “Money won’t get us out of this situation, but it’s definitely going to have to be part of it.”

When Hughes became a social studies teacher at a K-12 school in Nunapichuk about seven years ago, she was looking for adventure and a “different view of the world.” When he was invited to a funeral at the school the day after his arrival, he witnessed the central role the school played in such a small community.

He immersed himself in primarily Alaska Native village culture to avoid feelings of isolation, especially during what he described as a “make or break” first year in rural Alaska. He enjoys the hunting and fishing lifestyle.

There are also challenges. This school is near the top of the state’s list in need of major rebuilding. The village faces the threat of climate change. Thawing permafrost is destroying infrastructure.

It is unclear whether the proposed bonus for full-time teachers would apply to Mr. Hughes. He oversees some online classes and currently serves as the Dean of Students. Although he is not qualified to be an administrator, he says he is paid as a teacher.

Independent Rep. Rebecca Himschut, a former Sitka teacher, said lawmakers should find a way to pay for the school district’s needs. Otherwise, schools may not be able to provide athletics, art, drama, and other well-rounded education.

“What kind of school system do we want?” Himschut said. “Because we’re really rapidly moving toward a school system that doesn’t provide the opportunities that everyone in my generation had.”