Despite the fact that scores of Alaska schools don’t have even enough students to field a small basketball team and dozens are shuttering due to plummeting enrollment, the Alaska Association of School Boards (AASB) claims the cash-strapped state should start building full-sized, modern gymnasiums for every school – not necessarily for the kids, but for large community gatherings.
The demand is part of a larger dispute between state lawmakers and powerful education lobbyists over whether Alaska should be downsizing, shuttering and consolidating its underused public schools, or expanding and building more regardless of continued enrollment declines.
In a recent alert to his fellow educational bureaucrats, AASB Executive Director Lon Garrison said his New Year’s hope is driven by scenes of holiday concerts and community gatherings which serve to “anchor our communities.”
The reality, however, is that more than 50 Alaska schools have fewer than 20 students enrolled, and 16 schools have just 10 or fewer total children across all grade levels.
“In Alaska, school buildings serve more than one purpose,” he wrote. “They are often the safest, warmest places in town – used for community gatherings and, increasingly, as emergency shelters during storms and floods.”
A recently passed AASB resolution urges the state to include “full-sized gymnasiums in all schools,” because smaller gyms just aren’t large enough when communities need a gathering space for shelters or other uses.
The reality, however, is that more than 50 Alaska schools have fewer than 20 students enrolled, and 16 schools have just 10 or fewer total children across all grade levels.
Building full-sized gyms for these facilities would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and divert money from classrooms and much needed educational reforms at a time when the vast majority of public school students are failing to master basic reading, writing and math.
Those concerns don’t seem to have any sway on the AASB’s new legislative priorities for the coming year. Instead, they want more spending on recreational facilities, teacher retirement plans, free teacher housing, building enhancements and more.
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Even the massive increase in per-pupil spending, approved earlier this year, is not nearly enough, Garrison claims. In addition to the historic $700-per student boost, he wants more no-strings-attached money.
The AASB, like the powerful teacher’s union and their allies, has vehemently argued against any accountability measures that are tied to funding increases, despite the fact that Alaska’s public schools remain some of the worst performing institutions in the nation.
Additionally, these groups consistently oppose nearly every effort to support and expand Alaska increasingly popular home and charter school options, as well as educational choice initiatives that would give families greater flexibility in deciding where and how their children are educated.
