BLACKBOARD POLITICS REVISITED: 20 YEARS LATER, SAME SONG

We need more money, we need more money, we need more money!!!!!!

Some things never change.

Back on December 31, 2005, I wrote about the Anchorage School Board's endless demand for more funding — even after Governor Murkowski handed them $90 million. Twenty years later, the Anchorage School District is staring down a $90 million structural budget deficit for 2026-27, and the School Board is again considering major cuts to programs and staff. Same dollar figure. Same complaint. Same song, different decade.

The Tax Warning Came True

In 2005 I warned that without reform, Alaskans would eventually be voting on new taxes to fund education. That day has arrived. Anchorage voters faced a one-time tax levy in April 2026 that could direct nearly $12 million to the district. I take no pleasure in being right about that.

State Funding Still Broken

The core problem I identified in 2005 — that the state funding formula was flawed — remains unresolved. Alaska's school districts are now estimated to be about $1,400 per student behind in purchasing power because education funding has not kept pace with inflation for over a decade. The Legislature approved a permanent $700 increase to the Base Student Allocation, which provided some stability — but it didn't close the overall funding gap.

The Numbers Don't Lie: What Are We Actually Buying?

Here is where the comparison gets uncomfortable for the Anchorage School Board.

The Anchorage School District's adopted 2025-26 budget was $916 million, serving approximately 47,000 students — that works out to roughly $19,500 per pupil.

Now look at Edmonton. Edmonton Public Schools runs 214 schools serving 120,014 students on a budget of CA$1.42 billion for 2025-26. That's CA$11,832 per student. Converting at the 2025 average exchange rate of roughly US$0.716 per Canadian dollar, Edmonton spends approximately $8,472 USD per student — less than half of what Anchorage spends.

District	Students	Budget	Per Pupil (USD)
Anchorage School District	~47,000	$916 million USD	~$19,500
Edmonton Public Schools	120,014	CA$1.42B (~$1.02B USD)	~$8,472

Edmonton is educating more than twice as many students, in a decentralized system with lean central administration, for less than half the per-pupil cost in adjusted dollars. And yet Anchorage's School Board still insists there is nothing left to cut.

To be fair, Alaska's cost of living is genuinely higher than Alberta's, and Edmonton has its own funding battles with the province. Edmonton trustees have called their provincial funding formula "broken," approving a budget while barely able to add four new teaching positions despite an influx of over 3,000 new students. A decentralized system doesn't protect you from a broken state funding formula.

But that's precisely the point. Edmonton is fighting its funding battles with lean administration and money closer to classrooms. Anchorage is fighting its funding battles while spending more than twice as much per student — with a bureaucracy that has had twenty years of warnings and done little structural reform.

At $19,500 per pupil, Anchorage taxpayers deserve better answers than "we need more money."

The Case for Decentralization — Still Valid

In 2005 I pointed to the Edmonton Public School system as a model for decentralized management — putting budgeting decisions in the hands of principals, teachers, and parents at each school rather than a bloated central administration. San Diego Unified has been doing exactly this since 2011-12, using school site-based budgeting where individual principals and their communities have as much say as possible in how money is spent. Anchorage still hasn't followed suit.

The Anchorage School District claims it has made administrative cuts, pointing to a reduction of 109 full-time administrative positions between 2012 and 2026. That's something — but it still doesn't address the fundamental structural problem: money flows through a central bureaucracy before it ever reaches a classroom.

What Still Needs to Happen

The solution I proposed in 2005 remains sound: let each school build its own budget, have it approved at the state level, and fund it 100% — with strings attached. No money siphoned off for central PR departments. No administrative empire-building. Put the incentives where they belong: with the principal, the teachers, and the parents who show up every day.

Twenty years of the same argument should tell us something. The Anchorage School Board has had two decades to reform. Instead, they've perfected the tantrum.

It's time to try something different.