Senate Finance hears pleas to address Alaska’s $1.6 billion school maintenance backlog

The Alaska Senate Finance Committee on March 14 heard hours of testimony calling for renewed state investment to address widespread deferred maintenance in K–12 school facilities statewide.

Lori Weed, school finance manager with the Department of Education and Early Development, told the committee the department administers two statutory grant funds—School Construction Grant Fund (est. 1990) and the Major Maintenance Grant Fund (est. 1993)—and that both programs require a district participating share. "We are doing this for the students of Alaska," Weed said as she described eligibility rules, application timelines and the department's ranking procedures.

The testimony made the case that the state’s capital funding for schools has not kept pace with needs. Dr. Lisa Paradis of the Alaska Council of School Administrators said the association’s membership had prioritized major maintenance as one of the highest needs for districts this year and presented data showing 444 operational schools statewide, an average building age of 45 years and 63% of schools older than 40 years. "Alaska schools are falling apart," Paradis told the committee, citing examples of leaky roofs, frozen toilets and buildings with mold or compromised HVAC systems.

Small and remote districts described acute failures that state funding and the application process have left unaddressed. Rod Morrison, superintendent of the Southeast Island School District, said his district’s boiler failures, leaking roofs and failed underground fuel tanks have lingered on the department’s CIP list for more than a decade. "Small schools matter," Morrison said, adding that the cost of emergency repairs and shipping replacement parts to remote communities eats local operating budgets and threatens school viability.

Jim Anderson, chief operating officer for Anchorage School District, described a larger urban view: Anchorage manages roughly one-third of Alaska’s students and roughly 8 million square feet of facilities. He told senators national guidance recommends capital renewal equal to about 4% of replacement value annually and maintenance and operations equal to about 3% annually. "If we were to do best practice, we would have been bonding for about $80,000,000 a year on average," Anderson said, and added that Anchorage’s current deferred-maintenance backlog is roughly $1.6 billion.

Several committee members pressed department staff on specific program mechanics. Weed and other department staff described how projects are submitted annually by Sept. 1, ranked using the department’s scoring matrices, and published in an initial list in November. Districts may request reconsideration and can appeal department decisions to an administrative hearing officer and thereafter to superior court; the most recent major appeal the department cited occurred in 2016.

Witnesses and senators also discussed statutory and program changes that shaped the current funding environment. Weed explained the REAA fund (created following the Casale settlement) was expanded to include small municipalities and was intended to provide greater equity between rural and urban districts. The department noted that prior to a 2015 moratorium the state reimbursement for certain municipal bond debt reached 60–70%; administration proposals would change scheduled reimbursement rates beginning July 1, 2025 to a 40–50% range. Department materials cited $1.75 billion in project funding tallied between FY2011 and the current fiscal year for the bond-debt and grant programs (amounts reflect state shares and debt authorizations and do not include all local contributions).

Presenters urged several practical changes: increase and stabilize capital and major maintenance funding; provide a long-term maintenance strategy; review and streamline the CIP application process so small districts are not blocked by upfront engineering and architectural costs; and treat REA districts as a distinct category with different expectations because many lack local taxing authority or municipal partners to provide matching funds.

No formal committee votes or motions were recorded on March 14. Senators indicated they would continue to consider capital budget requests and legislative options during the 2025 budget process.

The committee recessed after the presentations and adjourned with its next meeting scheduled for March 17 at 9 a.m.