The Soldotna City Council on Wednesday called on the state government to “make a meaningful increase” to per student funding for schools. The move came only a day after the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly made a similar request.
A resolution sponsored by members Jordan Chilson and Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings, passed via the consent agenda with little discussion, says that state funding has “slowly degraded” due to “an upward inflationary trend,” creating a $17 million deficit in the local school district. That deficit “will likely” lead to school closures, class size increases, and elimination of important programs.
The city is calling for an increase to the BSA and ongoing inflation proofing of that amount, the resolution says. Soldotna’s resolution, unlike the assembly’s from the day prior, doesn’t also call for education reforms like those requested by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
No members of the council discussed the resolution during the meeting on Wednesday, though Soldotna’s representative to the assembly, Tyson Cox, who also sponsored the assembly’s resolution calling for a BSA increase, thanked them for recognizing education funding as a community issue. He said he’d already heard from legislators that they’d seen the resolutions being adopted locally.
The full text of the resolution can be found at soldotna.org.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
