Has been updated: 31 few minutes ago release date: 33 few minutes ago
JUNEAU — State senators and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have been unable to agree on a new education deal, leaving the fate of the Legislature's bipartisan education policy in the hands of the governor.
Senate Bill 140 includes the largest nominal school funding increase in state history. Additional funding for home-schooled and distance learning students and funding to improve internet speeds for eligible schools.
The governor has until midnight Thursday to sign or veto the education bill, otherwise it will automatically become law without his signature.
Dunleavy threatened to veto the education bill a day after it passed the House on a 56-3 vote. He called the bill a “three-legged horse” and said it should have included provisions he proposed, such as bonus payments for teachers and expanded access to charter schools.
In the following two weeks, none of Dunleavy's education priorities passed in either chamber.
Sen. Bill Wilechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, said he met with Mr. Dunleavy on Monday and Tuesday night to work out a good-faith education deal and avoid a veto. Negotiations were not successful.
“We don't have an agreement,” Wierechowski said Wednesday. “I don't know what will happen tomorrow.”
The main sticking point is with charter schools, he said. Dunleavy wants to give a statewide board he appoints the power to authorize new charter schools, sometimes over the objections of local school districts.
Kodiak Republican Senate President Gary Stevens, a former school board chairman, has vehemently opposed the change, fearing it would reduce local control.
Wierechowski said at a news conference Wednesday that creating more charter schools in Alaska would require significant discussions by lawmakers, including how to extract school funding from neighborhood schools. Stated.
U.S. Rep. Justin Loughridge, R-Soldotna, said he and several other lawmakers were invited to speak one-on-one with the governor about education policy on Wednesday. He said Dunleavy seems to care about the Legislature's input on the bill, and there are discussions about other education measures that could be passed before the end of the session.
Loughridge said he supports SB 140 publicly and personally, but said he doesn't know if Dunleavy will veto or approve the bill.
Rep. Craig Johnson, an Anchorage Republican who sponsored the failed education bill because it overlapped with Republican priorities, also said he wasn't sure what Dunleavy would do with SB140.
“We’ll see,” he said.
At a Feb. 27 press conference, Dunleavy indicated he was prepared to use a line-item veto to cut education funding from the budget. Stevens said the looming threat of a second veto remains unresolved in his talks with governors this week.
If Dunleavy vetoes SB140, lawmakers will meet in a joint session Monday to consider overriding the veto, the Senate president said. It remains unclear whether the two-thirds of lawmakers needed to pass the bill will vote to override Dunleavy's veto.
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