Over 100 Kodiak High School students walked out of classes on April 4 as part of a statewide protest over Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoing SB 140, a bill that would have permanently increased education funding.
Thursday’s walkout was organized by the Alaska Association of Student Government and was timed to match up with similar protests in schools across the state, from Ketchikan to Bethel.
Tessa Davis is a freshman at Kodiak High School and helped organize the local protest
“Here in Kodiak, we just need a funding increase. We have a really great school – we have really great programs offered here,” she said. “When I moved here, I was like ‘Wow there’s so much stuff going on in Kodiak.’ But now we’re seeing that stuff go away because our school district can’t afford it.”
Roughly a sixth of the high school left class at 11 a.m. The protest lasted for about 40 minutes to recognize the 40 votes the Legislature needed to overturn Gov. Dunleavy’s veto. The overturn vote failed by one legislator on March 18, and school districts lost out on what would have been a $680 increase to the base student allocation, or how much the state funds schools by student count.
The last significant increase to the BSA was in 2017.
Aiden Johnson is a junior at the high school. He said electives are a major reason why kids go to school. He’s concerned how fewer staff from budget cuts could affect student engagement.
“There’s kids always coming in with these little sheets that say ‘You have 15 absences, you need to go to the office,’” he said. “It’s very widespread and cutting down classes kids love is just going to up that scale.”
The Kodiak Island Borough School District has had to slash its budget by millions in recent years, in part to account for rising costs from inflation. In response, the district’s Board of Education has discussed cutting several administrative positions and even teachers in both core classes and electives. Some of the more controversial positions on the chopping block include music and Career & Technical Education teachers.
School officials have also expressed frustration over the Legislature’s failure to increase education funding.
In response to the walkouts, Dunleavy’s communications director, Jeff Turner, said in an email the governor encourages Alaskans to “exercise their First Amendment rights.” He also said the governor supports an increase to the BSA, however he ended the email by defending the education bill veto, citing support for charter schools instead.
Kodiak’s school district sent staff to patrol campus grounds during the local walkout, including Superintendent Cyndy Mika.
“We can’t either support or encourage or not encourage anything that has to do with political action with students – it’s against board policy,” she said. “So while we don’t condone a walkout, especially if it happens during school hours, my number one concern as the superintendent is always going to be the safety of the students.”
The superintendent’s office did however send an email to parents saying that students who leave class will be marked with an unexcused absence and may face consequences like detention. Parents were also told they may contact the school to excuse the absence.
Mika said she hopes the students can learn something from the walkout even though they’re missing instruction time.
“It’s a lesson in civics for our students that they have the right to peacefully assemble and protest,” she said.
Most of the students returned to the high school by the afternoon.
Updated April 8, 2024 to include more information from Jeff’s Turner’s statement.
