Today the U.S. Department of Education (ED) notified Alaska Education Commissioner Dr. Deena Bishop that it is dropping its meritless claims against Alaska pertaining to the Maintenance of Equity (MOEquity).
“Today marks the end of a saga the Biden-Harris administration started that was a tremendous waste of time and resources. From the very beginning, it was clear that the U.S. Department of Education’s allegations were meritless. Alaska was not going to back down because we knew we were right,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “On the bright side, this saga is a wonderful case study of the U.S. Department of Education’s abuse of power and serves as further evidence for why I support the concept of eliminating it.”
“It is a triumphant day for Alaska’s students, as our Maintenance of Equity battle with the US Department of Education has ended, and Alaska’s stance on the matter has been vindicated,” said Alaska Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Deena Bishop. “After standing firm behind our Legislature’s bipartisan funding formula, which has been repeatedly independently acclaimed as one of the most equitable in the nation, the federal government has finally conceded, admitting what we knew all along -we are putting the children of Alaska first.”
Maintenance of Equity was a provision inserted into the American Rescue Plan Act intended to ensure that low-income local school districts do not experience disproportionate cuts if a state reduced education funding.
On one hand, ED alleged that Alaska provided too little funding to some urban school districts. Therefore, ED’s argument implied Alaska provided disproportionately too much funding to rural districts. On the other hand, the formula Alaska used to determine funding amounts is one that ED had already approved.
Furthermore, Alaska did not cut education funding. If a school district received a lower funding amount, it was due to a drop in student enrollment.
ED failed to understand the “hold harmless” provision of Alaska’s funding formula. In Alaska, if a district’s enrollment drops more than 5%, the district does not immediately see a change in funding. Instead, the hold harmless provision allows the state to continue funding the district with amounts that step down over time. This is a benefit to school districts that prevents drastic changes in funding amounts and allows districts time to plan for a new level of funding based on changes in enrollment.
ED attempted to strong-arm Alaska into providing more funding to certain urban districts, although ED changed its demands on the dollar amounts and even which districts were allegedly owed the funds.
Some Alaska legislators latched onto ED’s demands in their attempt to increase the BSA at any cost and lambasted the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development’s leadership, even though testimony to the Senate Education Committee from a national expert supported the State of Alaska’s position.
ED’s decision today also validates Governor Dunleavy’s veto of funding the legislature added to the FY2025 budget to resolve the MOEquity dispute.
“I swore to uphold the Constitution of Alaska when I was elected,” Gov. Dunleavy said. “As long as I am Governor, I will continue to enforce the statutes of the great State of Alaska, regardless of what unelected bureaucrats demand.”
