State representative briefs Petersburg on education funding task force and major-maintenance priorities

Representative Rebecca Hemshutt told a joint Petersburg Borough'school board work session that the legislature's education funding task force (House Bill 57) is reviewing Alaska's school funding formula and is expected to publish recommendations in September or October.

"We created an education funding task force," Hemshutt said, adding the district cost factor in the funding formula has not been updated in roughly 20 years. "We should have the recommendations published in September, October." Hemshutt said the task force is looking at adequacy, chronic absenteeism, homelessness, special education and other factors that affect cost.

Why it matters: The task force's work could affect how state dollars are distributed among districts and whether larger, maintenance-focused allocations or formula changes are proposed. Hemshutt said major maintenance is likely to attract attention this session because it affects many districts and because the legislature is waiting on the spring revenue forecast.

Hemshutt told the group that the state's major-maintenance list totals about $520 million in identified school projects and that only about 60% of districts participate in the program because participation requires a six-year plan and engineering reports. She said Petersburg appears multiple times on the state list, including near No. 22 on one ranking and No. 25 for another school project.

Assembly members asked whether those rankings are statewide (Hemshutt: "Correct"), and whether funding will flow more toward maintenance than formula increases; Hemshutt said the BSA increase passed recently provides relief but that broader formula fixes face political obstacles. "I would say most of us are waiting anxiously for the spring revenue forecast," she said.

Hemshutt also touched on other legislative items that could affect local budgets, including a public-employee pension bill (House Bill 78), uncertainty around an LNG pipeline project and a half-billion-dollar supplemental FY26 budget that she said will be hard-fought in the legislature.

Next steps: Hemshutt said the task force's recommendations may become bills that will go through the full public process; she encouraged local input and offered to follow up on questions about program specifics and legislative language.