A Huge Infusion of Cash for Alaska’s School Districts

The state of Alaska recently published the Alaska K–12 Education COVID-19 Federal Relief Funding Dashboard to make transparent how much federal COVID-19 relief funding school districts received and how the funds are being spent. In total, Alaska public school districts have been awarded over $537 million and to date, they have only spent 21 percent of funds received. Nearly $422 million – 79 percent – of federal COVID-19 relief funds are sitting in the coffers of these districts This special funding is above and beyond district’s regularly allocated state and federal funds.

Yet some in Alaska are asking the state to increase the Base Student Allocation (BSA), which is one piece of state funding that schools receive. Schools have an abundance of additional money to spend this year and the next two years, as well. Schools should appropriately utilize these funds before asking the state and local taxpayers to hand over more money.

Alaska public school districts received over $510 million in required federal funds (see Table 1 for more details). An additional $27 million was dispersed to public schools via federal funds allocated originally to DEED and the Office of the Governor. In total, between both the required federal funds and the additional funding through the Governor’s Office and DEED, school districts received over $537 million, with a remaining unspent balance to date of almost $422 million (see Table 2).

 

Table 1.

Public School Districts – Required Federal Funds

Amount

Start of Funding Availability

End of Funding Availability

CARES Act $34,567,200 May 2020 September 30, 2022
CRRSA Act $143,747,480 January 2021 September 30, 2023
ARP Act $332,160,510 March 2021 September 30, 2024
Total $510,475,190

 

This state dashboard shows the total received by each district and lists each district’s expenditures of these funds. Table 2 shows each school district, how much it received in federal funds beyond normal funding, how much each district has spent to date, and the balance remaining. As examples, Anchorage School District has 90 percent – $166 million – still unspent; Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District has 77 percent unspent; and the Lower Kuskokwim School District has 74 percent of their federal funds unspent.

Table 2.

Public School Districts – Total Federal Funds

Amount

Spent as  of 02/03/2022

Balance

Percent Unspent

Alaska Gateway School District $2,905,281.00 $406,686.00 $2,498,595.00 86%
Aleutian Region School District $102,313.00 $25,029.00 $77,284.00 76%
Aleutians East Borough School District $566,419.00 $159,383.00 $407,036.00 72%
Anchorage School District $184,584,075.00 $18,792,925.00 $165,791,150.00 90%
Annette Island School District $2,266,854.00 $1,190,687.00 $1,076,167.00 47%
Bering Strait School District $19,314,002.00 $6,745,976.00 $12,568,026.00 65%
Bristol Bay Borough School District $328,239.00 $102,131.00 $226,108.00 69%
Chatham School District $1,249,831.00 $292,096.00 $957,735.00 77%
Chugach School District $608,717.00 $292,264.00 $316,453.00 52%
Copper River School District $1,732,684.00 $190,124.00 $1,542,560.00 89%
Cordova City School District $988,455.00 $604,613.00 $383,842.00 39%
Craig City School District $1,116,280.00 $562,355.00 $553,925.00 50%
Delta/Greely School District $2,866,695.00 $802,270.00 $2,064,425.00 72%
Denali Borough School District $479,800.00 $303,851.00 $175,949.00 37%
Dillingham City School District $1,743,080.00 $806,629.00 $936,451.00 54%
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District $36,503,650.00 $12,502,257.00 $24,001,393.00 66%
Galena City School District $789,330.00 $689,229.00 $100,101.00 13%
Haines Borough School District $890,315.00 $364,116.00 $526,199.00 59%
Hoonah City School District $1,183,709.00 $110,675.00 $1,073,034.00 91%
Hydaburg City School District $717,980.00 $136,275.00 $581,705.00 81%
Iditarod Area School District $1,932,296.00 $205,871.00 $1,726,425.00 89%
Juneau Borough School District $9,882,674.00 $3,401,879.00 $6,480,795.00 66%
Kake City School District $631,497.00 $181,859.00 $449,638.00 71%
Kashunamiut School District $4,927,445.00 $682,318.00 $4,245,127.00 86%
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District $33,303,942.00 $8,164,581.00 $25,139,361.00 75%
Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District $7,840,493.00 $5,548,767.00 $2,291,726.00 29%
Klawock City School District $791,811.00 $165,377.00 $626,434.00 79%
Kodiak Island Borough School District $5,902,131.00 $2,032,110.00 $3,870,021.00 66%
Kuspuk School District $3,545,101.00 $1,630,471.00 $1,914,630.00 54%
Lake and Peninsula Borough School District $1,909,695.00 $395,535.00 $1,514,160.00 79%
Lower Kuskokwim School District $48,719,136.00 $12,703,029.00 $36,016,107.00 74%
Lower Yukon School District $35,485,954.00 $6,476,536.00 $29,009,418.00 82%
Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District $58,908,720.00 $13,532,884.00 $45,375,836.00 77%
Mount Edgecumbe $5,557,747.00 $503,675.00 $5,054,072.00 91%
Nenana City School District $560,338.00 $272,141.00 $288,197.00 51%
Nome Public Schools $3,104,148.00 $729,300.00 $2,374,848.00 77%
North Slope Borough School District $6,257,526.00 $1,146,280.00 $5,111,246.00 82%
Northwest Arctic Borough School District $16,020,447.00 $4,517,143.00 $11,503,304.00 72%
Pelican City School District $104,682.00 $14,234.00 $90,448.00 86%
Petersburg Borough School District $1,210,836.00 $524,432.00 $686,404.00 57%
Pribilof School District $263,851.00 $39,451.00 $224,400.00 85%
Saint Mary’s School District $2,610,035.00 $486,438.00 $2,123,597.00 81%
Sitka School District $2,615,064.00 $794,281.00 $1,820,783.00 70%
Skagway School District $115,967.00 $43,509.00 $72,458.00 62%
Southeast Island School District $909,937.00 $153,783.00 $756,154.00 83%
Southwest Region School District $7,329,984.00 $2,116,465.00 $5,213,519.00 71%
Tanana City School District $103,318.00 $4,804.00 $98,514.00 95%
Unalaska City School District $340,205.00 $236,575.00 $103,630.00 30%
Valdez City School District $1,499,321.00 $1,152,155.00 $347,166.00 23%
Wrangell Public School District $1,024,362.00 $370,880.00 $653,482.00 64%
Yakutat School District $111,637.00 $38,254.00 $73,383.00 66%
Yukon Flats School District $2,566,683.00 $214,332.00 $2,352,351.00 92%
Yukon-Koyukuk School District $2,957,443.00 $393,727.00 $2,563,716.00 87%
Yupiit School District $8,523,346.00 $1,271,667.00 $7,251,679.00 85%
Total $536,595,786.00 $115,224,314.00 $421,767,007.00 79%

Because these federal grants are likely to be one-time-only, responsible spending entails one-time expenditures instead of ongoing expenditures such as salaries and benefits. Yet according to the district dashboards, many have chosen to use the funds for ongoing expenses, including salaries and benefits. While official guidelines suggest that spending the federal funds on hiring new school counselors or new staff is appropriate, extreme caution should be made as to the necessity of new positions in the long-term, as new positions require recurring costs.

As the DEED dashboards reveal, school districts are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars, yet are asking the state to dish out even more. Instead, parents, administrators, and policymakers should be asking: how can we spend these additional funds in a manner that best serves our students? Better examples of how to spend federal COVID-19 relief funds – outside of immediate COVID-19 response such as PPE equipment and online learning facilitation – include activities to address learning loss, afterschool reading programs, and summer school programs. The success of Alaska’s students is paramount, and the COVID-19 federal relief funding should be used to serve them.

Note: The dashboards are updated by the state regularly. All numbers referenced in this post are up-to-date as of February 3, 2022.