Anchorage Schools’ Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt has been doing some soul-searching following the defeat of two education funding ballot measures earlier this year.
In April, voters narrowly rejected a $79.4 million school bond for facilities construction and upgrades, along with another measure that would have imposed a special property tax to fund educational operations. Both ballot props failed 50% to 49%, leaving the educational establishment to wonder why the public doesn’t support increased funding.
Bryantt is now regrouping for another go. His first step is to figure out how to best craft his messaging in order to better appeal to voters.
On Sept. 7, the school district launched the first in an ongoing series of surveys aimed at figuring out what parents and community members actually care about when it comes to public education.
“Last spring gave us a lot to reflect on as a school district,” Bryantt wrote in a Sept. 7 note to the Anchorage community. “The bond and education levy results were part of that, as were the conversations, questions, and feedback we heard from families, employees, students, and community members throughout the year.”
In particular, he noted that the public wants “clearer explanations, earlier engagement, and a better understanding of how feedback informs decisions” before they are willing to fork over more money.
“As I thought about what we heard, I kept coming back to a bigger question: trust,” Bryantt wrote. “Are we explaining difficult issues clearly enough? Are we listening early enough? Are we creating meaningful opportunities for people to help inform the conversation before major decisions are made?”
He admitted that the school district needs to rebuild, strengthen and earn the trust of the larger community.
His reflections failed to address many of the main criticisms that are driving students and parents away from the district and into homeschool and private education options. Issues like controversial curriculum, parental rights, LGBTQ agendas, chronically poor academic outcomes, explicit sex education, woke library policies and the district’s relentless push for DEI initiatives and critical race theory were not mentioned in Bryantt’s reflections.
But he does want to hear from parents and the wider community through a series of online surveys and meetings, which he coined, “ASD Listens: Reflect & Refocus.”
Ultimately, Bryantt claims he wants to learn how the district can communicate its priorities more effectively.
“Our approach is simple: Listen. Learn. Act. Report Back,” he explained.
Whether that means the district will report the actual hard data from the survey or merely summarize it to fit a preestablished narrative remains to be seen.
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Bryantt’s project begins with his new “Community Values Survey,” which asks participants to “tell us what matters most, what we need to explain more clearly, and what would help strengthen trust.”
He notes that the survey deals with how the district spends money, how it decides when to shutter schools or open new ones, and what would help earn and strengthen trust.
“Trust isn’t rebuilt or strengthened through one survey, meeting, or letter. It’s built over time through what we do and whether we follow through,” Bryantt acknowledged.
The survey, which is open until Sept. 29, fails to mention many of the hot-button cultural issues that are driving families away from traditional brick-and-mortar schools. In order to touch on these subjects, survey participants must write their comments in the “other” categories at the end of each question.
Whether a series of surveys and meetings will be enough to win widespread support for more taxpayer funds for the district remains to be seen.
TAKING ACTION
— Click here to view and take the survey.
15 Comments
Sounds very much like the usual mealy-mouthed platitudes from the School District. It isn’t that they don’t communicate their priorities well enough, it is that those priorities are objectionable. How much money was spent to build a brand new Inlet View school when the old school operated just fine? How much has been spent on DEI trash while kids can’t read or do arithmetic? How many days off should schools take during the year, so that they cut off summer well before summer is over? How much porn is enough porn in school libraries? All of these questions have been answered, and the answers were rot.
the survey was stupid when the answer to rebuild public trust is hold teachers accountable and fire the bad ones. Get DEI and LGBTQ out of the curriculum. Create a more conservative budget. Return to traditional curriculum and methods that were proven to teach kids how to read, write, and compute. Teach discipline in the classrooms even if the kids are scrubbing their school for their punishments.
Can we also add taking the public funding for homeschool kids? Homeschool kids should not receive any public funding. If you choose to homeschool in Anchorage, pay out of pocket like private schools.
It costs less to educate a home schooler. Parents want their children to have a proper and traditional education , not one driven by DEI and wokeness. If schools would simply do that, there would probably not be home schooling.
The parents are paying taxes for (schooling) so I would suggest if they homeschool their kids the taxes going toward schools should be cancelled out. Taxes are for services rendered. If you’re not getting a particular service you shouldn’t pay a tax. The public school system is a train wreck.
So if it costs less to educate a home schooler, why are homeschooled Anchorage kids getting the same amount as public school kids? Are the families pocketing the rest? Seems like DOGE needs to go in a check out the homeschoolers.
Also, homeschooling in Anchorage, much like a private school is a choice. You have the luxuries and choose to homeschool your kid, so don’t mooch off the public funds. DEI and wokeness is extremely sensationalized – there is none in the schools my kids go to.
Allotments from charter schools per student are nowhere near what we pay per student in public school, by roughly $10,000-$15,000. And, how is it “mooching” if we’re paying into the system but not receiving the services?
What a strange world that would consider homeschooling a “luxury.” Are we automatically wealthier than the average Joe because we make sacrifices to subsist on one income so that we can be the primary educators of our children? We don’t homeschool because we’re swimming in cash. We homeschool because we believe it’s best for our children.
Lastly, DOGE can stop on my doorstep. We don’t use any public funds.
Really liz. ??
The first thing I told the Muni when I went down to city hall to file an objection to my 33% increase in property tax was good luck passing school bonds this year!
While you’re listening, Jharrett, I’d like you to fly back to Texas and donate your salary and stipend for a vehicle back to the school district to save some $$. That’s all. Thanks for asking!
Can we ask nicely, that he never comes back to Alaska again.
From reading this article it sounds like he knows what the issues are but refuses to acknowledge them.
Requesting a new tax be applied, is no way to win over voters. They know that taxes for a specific use, never go away, they simply get transfered to pay for something else. School superintendents cry and whine every year that they need more money, state wide, it’s a never ending chourus, taxpayers are tired of hearing it, as a result, they won’t vote for bond increases (which usually mean increased taxes.) Unfortunetly, school districts are like politicans, they’ve never seen a budget, they could adhere to. Add in programs like, “Drag Queen Storey Hour” and you begin to see why voters don’t trust School Districts.
Thre is no one to nail out the home owner, when taxes go up, most of us learned to keep to a budget, long before we even bought our homes.
correction :change “nail” to bail in previous comment.
Homeschooling programs actually keep kids enrolled in school districts. It costs the district much less to educate a child with the provided stipend than a child who attends in person. So the districts are the ones pocketing the money and benefit from keeping the homeschoolers enrolled in their district.