Alaska’s Public-Education Crisis Sets a Dangerous Precedent
On June 28, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy vetoed the budget passed by the state’s legislature and announced a staggering $444 million in cuts to social-service programs and public education, including $135 million from the University of Alaska system. The legislature could have overridden the veto in Juneau, but failed, as far-right Republican legislators abandoned their more moderate brethren to hold legislative session in a middle-school classroom in Wasilla simply because the governor ordered it. As the most successful attack on public higher ed and all it offers regionally and internationally, Alaska’s nightmare sets an ominous precedent for other red states.
Soon after the budget cuts were announced, the credit-rating agency Moody’s downgraded the University of Alaska’s credit rating three degrees, which, as university President James Johnsen explained, “makes bonding or borrowing money substantially more expensive.” The only path left for the university system was financial exigency, which is like bankruptcy—but worse, because it does not discharge debts. Financial exigency means any campus, department, program, and position in the university system can be axed with little to no notice. This means that more than 1,300 jobs will likely be lost. The measure also nulls all previous contracts, jeopardizes the union’s collective-bargaining agreement, and permits massive and rapid restructuring of the university. The Board of Regents is considering a multi-university lead campus model or a single-accreditation model, the latter of which appears the frontrunner, despite student and staff concerns, as well as the chancellor’s championing of the consortium model. The single-accreditation model restructures the multi-campus system into one university, with each department “housed” at a designated campus, and all in-person offerings in that field at other campuses CONTINUE READING: Republicans Are Dismantling Public Education in Alaska | Bitch Media