Alaska Democrats and their ideological allies in the GOP joined forces to thwart Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of $51 million in additional education funding, which state lawmakers had previously approved for Alaska’s chronically underperforming public school system.
Gov. Dunleavy called the State Legislature into a special session this month in hopes lawmakers would pass a list of education policy initiatives that aimed to provide school choice options and greater accountability. Instead, they capitulated to union bosses and leftist nonprofits to quickly override the governor’s funding veto, without ever considering his policy initiatives.
To overcome Dunleavy’s veto, Alaska’s Democrat-controlled majority convinced 17 GOP legislators to join them in securing the largest increase to state-run education in Alaska’s history. The flood of new money comes at a time when conservatives are urging the state to focus more on charter schools, homeschool programs and other alternatives to traditional brick and mortar public schools. They point to the fact that standard public schools have produced dismal results for decades, and argue that throwing more money at a failing system is a waste of public money, especially when the funds are devoid of meaningful reform proposals.
In the lead up to the vote, entrenched educational bureaucrats, teachers’ unions and left-leaning nonprofits all urged lawmakers to override the governor, and fork over more education funds without including additional accountability measures for how the money is spent.
The final vote was 45-14, and effectively ensures that public school districts receive an additional $700 for every student they enroll.
GOP LAWMAKERS WHO JOINED DEMS TO OVERRIDE GOVERNOR’S VETO
— Sen. Jesse Bjorkman (R-Nikiski)
— Sen. Robert Yundt (R-Wasilla)
— Sen. James Kaufman (R-Anchorage)
— Sen. Kelly Merrick (R-Eagle River)
— Sen. Mike Cronk (R-Tok/Northway)
— Sen. Cathy Giessel (R-Anchorage)
— Sen. Bert Stedman (R-Sitka)
— Sen. Gary Stevens (R-Kodiak)
— Rep. Jeremy Bynum (R-Ketchikan)
— Rep. Julie Colombe (R-Anchorage)
— Rep. Bill Elam (R-Nikiski)
— Rep. Chuck Kopp (R-Anchorage)
— Rep. David Nelson (R-Anchorage)
— Rep. Justin Ruffridge (R-Soldotna)
— Rep. Dan Saddler (R-Eagle River)
— Rep. Will Stapp (R-Fairbanks)
— Rep. Louise Stutes (R-Kodiak)
GOP LAWMAKERS WHO VOTED TO UPHOLD GOVERNOR’S VETO
— Sen. Shelley Hughes (R-Palmer)
— Sen. Robert Myers (R-North Pole)
— Rep. Jamie Allard (R-Eagle River)
— Rep. Mia Costello (R-Anchorage)
— Rep. DeLena Johnson (R-Palmer)
— Rep. Kevin McCabe (R-Big Lake)
— Rep. Elexie Moore (R-Wasilla)
— Rep. Mike Prax (R-North Pole)
— Rep. George Rauscher (R-Sutton)
— Rep. Rebecca Schwanke (R-Glennallen)
— Rep. Cathy Tilton (R-Wasilla)
— Rep. Frank Tomaszewski (R-Fairbanks)
— Rep. Jubilee Underwood (R-Wasilla)
— Rep. Sarah Vance (R-Homer)
14 Comments
The fact that the vote went 45-14 was no accident. Exactly forty-five votes were needed in order to release the money and accomplish Juneau’s spending goals. Once 45 legislators were identified who would vote in support of those spending goals, every other legislator could then vote NO (to aid their re-election in more conservative districts) without negatively impacting any of Juneau’s (or the NEA’s) spending goals.
This is often the way that voting works in Juneau. You start by identifying the legislators who will vote to accomplish the spending priority, and then all other legislators get a free pass to vote “with the people” against the spending without actually cutting any of the spending or upsetting what Juneau is doing. If just the right number of votes materialize to accomplish spending the money, you can be sure that the vote is not terribly popular in at least some parts of Alaska. You can also be fairly confident that if the vote had required another legislator or two to vote YES, those votes would have easily materialized. Either your legislator or another legislator would have “taken one for the team” in Juneau by voting YES to ensure the spending went through.
You can easily see this was the case with this vote by stepping back and looking at the vote that took place only moments before to override the governor’s veto on SB183. That vote passed 43-16 and the governor’s veto was easily overridden with 16 Republicans voting to override the governor. While the vote on SB183 and the vote on HB53 took place only moments apart, and involved the exact same legislators voting on both bills, the second vote involved spending, which triggered a 45 vote requirement in order to pass. In order to accomplish this, two Republicans simply switched from voting to uphold the governor’s veto (on SB183) to voting to override the governor’s veto (on HB53). In this way, Juneau was able to easily accomplish overriding the governor on both bills.
You can find the official voting record for both votes at https://www.akleg.gov/PDF/34/J/H2025-08-02.PDF.
You can see that Sen. Cronk (R-Tok) and Rep. Stapp (R-Fairbanks) switched their votes in order to achieve the 45 vote requirement. When you also take into account that immediately after the vote Sen. Hughes sent out a press release declaring that her NO vote was actually a YES vote for even more education spending than the governor vetoed (see https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1162865572316734&set=a.296600102276623) you quickly realize that there was only one senator who actually voted to oppose the spending increases (Sen. Myers, R-North Pole).
Bottom line: If the NEA had needed your legislator’s vote to get the spending through the legislature they could have easily gotten it. There are exceedingly few legislators today who would have voted NO if their vote would have actually cut any of the spending, thereby incurring the wrath of the NEA and its allies.
Special Interest Groups actually control the purse strings. Public Choice Theory provides the framework to analyse this very behaviour and is one of the best tools to understand the political economy.
Once again, I say… Move them out of their little protective, mostly isolated, Juneau mansions, and relocate them to a more accessible location.
You do realize that only two reps and one senator are actually residents of Juneau. I didn’t vote for any of these three but I have seen the houses they live in and they are anything but mansions.
Say What.. Yes, I do realize that, and the reference to “mansions” was sarcastic, and I should have captioned that, But, it is referring to their Juneau hiding places.. They do not fly back to their homes every evening at the closing of the days sessions… However, the main point is… Get them out of Juneau, and into a more accessible location for the main populace of Alaskans.. The main populace can not simply fly, or sail down there, and they know that.
Sen. Jesse Bjorkman (R-Nikiski) will not ever get another vote of mine! He is a turncoat and nothing more than a young punk that lied to get elected.
What? A politician lied? Say it isn’t so! It’s their capital in trade. Lies and deceit and greed and power. No wonder there’s so much voter apathy at the polls. As planned and celebrated by these thieves in suits. Disgusting.
your bad. Should have vetted him before you gave him your vote. Those senators who stood with Dunleavy have my respect. They want what is best for Alaska’s kids, their education. Who gives a cat’s meow about “offending the NEA or unions”. You senators were HIRED BY YOUR constituents to do YOUR BEST for their votes, & their children.
Where is your integrity, your ethical values? Dunleavy wanted to give Alaskan parents the ability to afford an education for their children, enabling them to be intellectually competitive in today’s world. Our kid’s academic futures just got flushed down the toilet because you don’t have grit & the fortitude to stand against those who are only interested in what’s best for the educator’s pocketbooks. Ain’t one of those kids gonna glean one iota of intelligence from the $700 per student enrolled in one of the lowest scoring school systems in the nation.
Thanks for your lousy representation.
t.
Please vote OUT, all these Republicans/Rinos, who caucus with democrats in your home district.
We need to take back Alaska before it’s too late.
I will now actively work to recall Yundt…who is with me?
Thanks Dave! They learned that reptilian technique of not representing the voters from the swamp in D.C.
Voters who believe their vote actually counted for something are seeing the corruption in real-time.
Alaska needs to end RCV and voting machines and go to hand counting ballots, so the swamp doesn’t continue to place people without a soul into these seats. They are serving themselves, not Alaskans. A previous comment said, the Capitol needs to be moved out of Juneau and setup in Anchorage or Fairbanks. I agree this must also happen.
We will not be supporting Mike Cronk or Will Stapp in future elections here in the interior.. Integrity and character is missing and these legislators do not care.
Pray for a removal of them from office and for our capital to be moved to the mainland where citizens can access the legislators not just the clique of the unions and special interests. Furthermore Department of Labor should be dissolved because that is where the unions hide. Pray for our governments that they return to ruling according to the Constitutions, Rule of law, Ten Commandments and the original intent of these offices..
I p
Have prayed many times over many years to move the capital but it’s still there I don’t know whas I should do next
Gᴏᴏɢʟᴇ ʜᴀꜱ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴀɴ ɪɴᴄʀᴇᴅɪʙʟᴇ ᴏᴘᴘᴏʀᴛᴜɴɪᴛʏ! ᴇᴀʀɴ + ʙᴜᴄᴋꜱ ᴡᴇᴇᴋʟʏ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ʜᴏᴍᴇ! ᴀ ꜰᴇᴡ ᴍᴏɴᴛʜꜱ ᴀɢᴏ, ɪ ᴡᴀꜱ ꜱᴛᴜᴄᴋ ɪɴ ᴀ ʀᴏᴜᴛɪɴᴇ, ʙᴀʀᴇʟʏ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ ᴇɴᴅꜱ ᴍᴇᴇᴛ. ɴᴏᴡ, ɪ ᴇᴀʀɴ + ᴀ ᴅᴀʏ ᴡᴏʀᴋɪɴɢ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ʜᴏᴍᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇ ꜰʟᴇxɪʙɪʟɪᴛʏ! ɴᴏ ᴇxᴘᴇʀɪᴇɴᴄᴇ? ɴᴏ ᴘʀᴏʙʟᴇᴍ.
ᴊᴏɪɴ ɴᴏᴡ➤➤ rb.gy/8zxujp