After four tumultuous years leading the Anchorage School District, Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt announced he is quitting his post in early 2027 for a fresh start as superintendent of Alexandria City Schools in Virginia – his third superintendent gig in less than six years.
Hired in July of 2022, Bryantt’s Anchorage tenure has been marked by plummeting enrollment, failing student test scores, shuttered schools, policy controversies and eroding community trust.
Just three weeks ago, he released a public letter in response to the fact that Anchorage voters recently 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.
At the time, Bryantt blamed a lack of public “trust,” and the failure of the school district to clearly explain its long-term agenda.
“As I thought about what we heard, I kept coming back to a bigger question: trust,” Bryantt wrote in September. “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?”
His recent reflections failed to touch on 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.
During Bryantt’s four-plus years, the Anchorage School District has lost more than 2,400 students (5.5%), falling from 43,573 in 2022-23 to 41,168 in 2025-26. Over that time, student performance in statewide testing has languished, with roughly 64% of students unable to achieve basic proficiency in math or reading, and more than 60% failing in science.
At the same time, Bryantt and the left-leaning majority on the Anchorage School Board have doubled down on official policies that direct teachers to facilitate and affirm gender-confused students in their chosen names and pronouns, while allowing students to use restrooms and locker rooms based on their preferred “gender identity” rather than biological sex. The district also warns teachers against informing parents about their child’s gender transitioning in school.
Through it all, Bryantt has earned between $250,000 and $276,000 annually. His new post in Virginia will pay $310,000.
The district also continues to maintain guidelines that allow gender-confused students to compete as members of the opposite sex if they identify that way. For official state high school girls’ competitions, however, the Alaska School Activities Association overrides this policy, but it remains in effect for district-level competitions.
These social controversies are coupled with funding struggles.
Last year, Bryantt spent considerable time publicly complaining about an “ongoing financial crisis” and a $100 million deficit, while his proposed budget asked for a 20% increase to boost the district office that pushes diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and enforcement of LGBTQ initiatives and controversial race theory. His proposed budget for 2025-26 also sought to eliminate high school hockey, swimming and gymnastics, do away with all middle school sports, cut elementary summer school, and cut Battle of the Books funding. While the school board ultimately restored these proposed cuts, it also agreed to Bryantt’s request for more funding for his DEI initiatives.
In response to this agenda, many families have simply pulled their kids from the district, opting for the increasingly popular state-funded homeschool programs and private or religious schools. Exacerbating the enrollment decline is the fact that Alaskans are having fewer children, which means fewer students and dwindling state dollars to run scores of shrinking schools. Under Bryantt’s leadership, the district closed down five underused schools, including three this year.
Through it all, Bryantt has earned between $250,000 and $276,000 annually. His new post in Virginia will pay $310,000.
In announcing his pending departure, Bryantt claimed his Anchorage job was “one of the greatest privileges of my life.”
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“There is no easy way for me to share this news with a community that has come to mean so much to me,” he wrote. “I care deeply about our students, our people, and this community, which has made the decision to begin a new chapter an extraordinarily difficult one.”
Bryantt’s letter boasted that he helped strengthen “early literacy,” and that his tenure has seen an increase in graduation rates and career training opportunities.
“We have accomplished a great deal together. We have also confronted some extraordinarily difficult financial and operational realities together,” he added. “Those moments required hard decisions, honest conversations, and a willingness to improve.”
Bryantt claimed that educators and staff have remained focused on the reason this district exists: “educating all students for success in life.”
“I am proud of that work, but even prouder of the people behind it,” he stated. “Everything we have achieved has been the result of thousands of people choosing every day to contribute something to our students and our community … Thank you to our students and families for trusting us.”
