End of an era? Kenai expects plummeting student enrollment to continue
The Kenai School District is experiencing the effects of a profound shift impacting government-run education across Alaska. Students are leaving, budgets are shrinking and the old model is rapidly losing public
Alaska wants ideas on ways to improve struggling public schools
Alaskans who have ideas on how the state might improve its struggling public education system are being encouraged to weigh in on a host of topics such as charter schools, curriculum, sex discrimination, student and parent rights, student testing, school
Fairbanks School Board rejects member’s plea to pull sexually explicit library books
The ongoing controversy around sexually explicit library books available to children enrolled in the Fairbanks School District was a hot topic at the latest school board meeting. During the Nov. 18 meeting, conservative Board Member Loa Carroll-Hubbard asked
Murkowski blasts Trump’s efforts to shrink and reform failed Education Dept.
Despite the fact that U.S. public schools are failing at their most basic task of teaching reading, writing and math, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is adamantly opposed to President Trump’s quest to overhaul and shrink the gargantuan U.S. Dept. of
OPINION: Alaska education bureaucracy invokes ‘hungry children’ to justify double dipping
Few subjects can shut down a budget discussion faster than feeding kids. It’s the rhetorical trump card of education politics - invoke “hungry children,” and any criticism of fiscal waste is branded cruel. But compassion isn’t the same thing as
Despite tanking enrollment, Anchorage school board refuses to close 2 schools
While enrollment in traditional brick and mortar public schools continues to decline, the Anchorage School Board voted to keep two elementary schools open for business even though they are at just 55% capacity. The Nov. 18 vote rebuffed the district
Unstoppable Mat-Su 9U Football Heads to Nationals: Needs help to get there.
It is not often that any team finishes a season without a single point scored against them. 396 to zero over 10 consecutive games. That is the remarkable record this year of the Mat-Su 49ers Mitey Mite Football Team, in an unprecedented season, this group of
Amid failing students and sinking enrollment, Fairbanks superintendent wins national award
Despite a massive exodus of students and chronic failure to teach basic reading and math across the district, Fairbanks Superintendent Luke Meinert has been recognized as one of the top 10 school superintendents in the
OPINION: Bloated design failures plague Alaska’s public education system
For years, Alaska’s education establishment has perfected the art of crying poverty while sitting atop one of the most bloated bureaucratic structures in the country. The chorus is always the same - “we need more funding” - but the song never changes:
OPINION: Alaska education lobby evades real reform with ‘Evidence-Based’ talisman
Every time Alaska’s education bureaucracy finds itself cornered by poor results, it reaches for a familiar escape hatch: “evidence-based.” It’s the talisman that turns spending requests into
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