Alaska school districts join lawsuit against U.S. Department of Education

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Three Alaska school districts are joining a lawsuit filed Monday against the Department of Education.

The Alaska school districts included in the lawsuit are the Anchorage School District, Fairbanks North Star Borough School District and Kuspuk School District, which encompasses a large section of Western Alaska.

The plaintiffs listed in the filing are suing the administration over its decision to freeze $6 billion in federal education funds.

The lawsuit was filed in Rhode Island U.S. District Court. The plaintiffs — 14 school districts, teacher federations, and education associations in total — will be represented by the nonprofit Democracy Forward.

In a statement accompanying the lawsuit, Anchorage School District Superintendent Dr. Jharrett Bryantt said the funding freeze has created “deep instability”.

“These funds provide targeted support for English learners and for families whose livelihoods depend on agricultural work, logging, or fishing,” Bryantt wrote in the statement.

“Districts like ours cannot plan responsibly or meet our obligations when longstanding federal commitments are withheld without warning. We are taking legal action to protect our students, honor the promises made to our communities, and restore the stability every school system needs to open strong and serve well.”

Anchorage and Fairbanks are the state’s first and second largest school districts respectively, but the third district represented in the suit is one of the smallest.

Kuspuk School District is comprised of roughly 320 students and 130 teachers in 9 schools, spread over an area of 120 miles.

“What might appear to be a small dollar amount to some people, especially side by side, some of the largest urban districts in the state of Alaska, let alone the country is a voice that still needs to be heard, and it is impacting rural districts the same way that it’s impacting the urban districts,” said Kuspuk Superintendent Dr. Madeline Aguillard.

Aguillard said that the grants they receive support everything from summer programming, to teacher recruiting, to emergency communication systems.

Kuspuk’s status as a Regional Educational Attendance Area [REAA] means that they have no tax base, according to Aguillard.

“So, we are completely reliant on the state and federal government for funding,” Aguillard explained.

Since there are few public resources like libraries or gyms in the Kuspuk area, Aguillard said this funding is even “more critical” than it would be for urban areas.

“Without these funds, our students, they don’t have another gym to go to, they don’t have a library to go pick out a book at, they don’t have those options,” Aguillard said.

Alaska’s school districts face funding cuts not just from the federal government, but also potentially from the state government. As Alaska’s News Source reported, Gov. Mike Dunleavy line-item vetoed about $51 million in education funding in June, although the veto was defeated by the Legislature.

A special session was called by Dunleavy to address education reform, a session that the governor asked republican minority members to skip to prevent any vetoes from being overturned.

In addition, the Alaska state school board has been considering changing a rule limiting the amount of money cities and boroughs can use to fund schools in their districts. The new rule would reduce the invested funding for cities and boroughs that are at, or near, the amount they can donate.

The funding cuts have had an impact on each of Alaska’s school districts.

Dr. Jharrett Bryantt, Anchorage School District superintendent, said in an interview with Alaska’s News Source that five people were laid off last week due to the funding freeze and state cuts.

“Those are real losses and it’s upsetting,” Bryantt said. “We used our general fund to try to float these next few weeks.”

“We’re exhausting reserves as we speak and they’re not going to last forever... frankly, the damage has been done.”

The Anchorage School District expected to receive nearly $12 million before the funds were frozen, according to the court filing. The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District and Kuspuk School Districts, which both serve fewer students than Anchorage, were expected to receive $2.6 million and $180,000, respectively.

The filing claims the funds have not been allotted by the previously given July 1 date, as the Department of Education is planning to complete a review to ensure the funds “are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities”.

The filing also says the school districts are harmed by the withholding of funds as they have planned for the upcoming school year in reliance on the funds having become available on July 1.

The non-profit organizing the lawsuit released a statement saying the freeze is part of an “ongoing assault” on education.

“The Department of Education is holding hostage billions of dollars from American communities.” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward.

“This is an unconstitutional and unlawful power grab that puts extreme agendas over the well-being of students and denies communities the educational resources that Congress intended them to have.”

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