Education funding rally targets tiny audience: swing votes on Saturday’s special session veto override
- Mark Sabbatini
- Aug 2, 2025
- 4 min read
Legislators passed a $700 per-student funding increase by a 46-14 vote; 45 votes are needed to override Dunleavy vetoing $200 of that increase
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
It was to an extent a rally staged for an audience of perhaps two people — legislators considered the decisive swing votes on an expected override vote Saturday by the Alaska Legislature on Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of some education funding.
About 50 educators and supporters gathered in a downpour in front of the Alaska State Capitol at midday Friday, with speakers repeating familiar observations about struggles the state’s schools are going through due to relatively flat funding during the past 15 years.
Legislators who’ve heard such arguments continuously for years approved a $700 increase to the $5,960 Base Student Allocation by a 46-14 vote — and 45 of those votes are needed to override Dunleavy’s veto of $200 of the increase.
"There are certain legislators who we were concerned are not going to hold to their original override vote, and we are here to ask them again not to flip and undermine the vote that they took," Caroline Storm, executive director of the Coalition for Education Equity, said during the rally.
Dunleavy called the special session as a political maneuver seeking to thwart an override of his veto, asking Republicans to stay away during the first five days — when such votes must occur — and expecting not all lawmakers supporting the funding would be able to make it to Juneau during the summer due to other commitments.
However, legislative leaders now say the vote is a too-close-to-call situation as most or all members are expected to be in Juneau on Saturday, including an override supporter returning from military service abroad and Republicans who previously said they would honor Dunleavy’s request not to attend.
Other bills vetoed by Dunleavy may also be taken up by lawmakers, since such votes must take place now due to the special session rather than at the start of the regular session in January, as is more common. But many lawmakers say they expect the session to last a single day and bypass other things Dunleavy has called for during a special session that could last up to 30 days, including education policy changes and the Legislature’s rejection of his effort to establish a state Department of Agriculture.
Dunleavy’s veto of education funds cost the Juneau School District $1.4 million in its roughly $80 million operating budget for the fiscal year that started July 1, although the school board assumed only a $400 BSA increase would occur when the budget was crafted.
However, the district is facing multiple financial issues, including facilities needing maintenance (with the Juneau Assembly on Monday rejecting a $10 million school projects bond for the fall election ballot) and teacher negotiations (which are at an impasse over, among other things, salary and benefit differences totaling $1.17 million).
Among the six speakers at Friday’s rally were two Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé students who described the hardships resulting from state funding that for many years has failed to keep pace with inflation.
Siena Farr, a senior this year, told the crowd that a merger of district schools last year due to a financial crisis — including combining two high schools into one — did create some options for classes and clubs that didn’t exist with two smaller schools. But "we also got many complications."
“In my first week of school my AP U.S. History class had 50 students,” she said. "This was 10 students over the class size fire-safety limit in my teacher's classroom. There were only two class periods for this class, and both were either full or overflowing with students. This ultimately led to 10 students willingly devaluing their education and switching to a less-challenging class."
Saturday’s special session is scheduled to start at 10 a.m., with a joint override of the governor’s vetoes at 10:15 a.m. Another rally by educators is scheduled in front of the Capitol at 11 a.m.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
