As business owners, we look at Anchorage through the lens of long-term viability. We invest in our storefronts, our fleets and our employees because we believe in this city’s future. But lately, that future is looking increasingly fragile.
For seven years, we’ve watched a slow-motion crisis in our schools that is now hitting our bottom lines. When neighborhood schools like Fire Lake or Lake Otis close, property values shift and local commerce patterns break. When class sizes balloon and programs like IGNITE are axed, the families we employ start looking for the exit. We aren’t just losing students; we are losing our current workforce and failing to develop our future one.
To stabilize our economy and our community, we believe Anchorage must pursue a two-track solution: a state funding inflation adjustment and local support for Proposition 9.
The math is simple: You cannot run a 2026 business on a 2017 budget. Between skyrocketing costs for utilities, insurance and labor, “flat funding” is, in reality, a massive budget cut.
Recent data reveals a startling trend: Alaska ranks last among all 50 states in cumulative spending growth per pupil relative to inflation. While the rest of the country adjusted to a 35% inflation rate, Alaska limped along at just 14%. We are starving our competitive edge.
Fortunately, many of our legislators in Juneau see the crisis we are facing and are taking action. The House Education Committee has introduced House Bill 374 to adjust the Base Student Allocation, or BSA, to restore some of the investment lost to inflation. The Senate Education Committee has introduced Senate Bill 277 to modestly increase the BSA and introduce a suite of policy reforms and funding measures designed to build consensus and make targeted investments. We are grateful for this leadership.
This isn’t about “more” money; it’s about restoring the purchasing power necessary to keep our schools functional. We need a predictable funding formula so businesses and families can plan for the future with confidence.
While we support the work happening in Juneau, we cannot leave our classrooms unprotected. Even if a state adjustment passes, it won’t undo years of structural damage overnight. Proposition 9 is our local insurance policy.
Proposition 9 is a one-time, $11.8 million levy dedicated solely to retaining more than 80 teacher positions. Without it, the Anchorage School District will be forced to increase the pupil-teacher ratio by four students per class.
From a business perspective, the return on investment here is clear:
• Small cost: For a $400,000 property, the cost is roughly $9 a month.
• High impact: It prevents catastrophic classroom overcrowding that drives young professional families to leave the state.
• Stability: It is a one-year rescue mission, not a permanent tax hike. It buys us the time needed for the state to fix the funding formula without losing more talent in the process.
We cannot recruit top-tier talent to Anchorage if our school system is in a state of managed decline. We cannot build a robust economy on the back of a systematic erosion of public education driven by years of vetoes and stagnant funding.
As employers, we know that investing in our schools is investing in our local economy. On April 7, join us in voting yes on Proposition 9 and demanding a real inflation adjustment from Juneau. Let’s stop the bleeding and give Anchorage a fighting chance to thrive.
Adam Hays, Steph Johnson and Patrick Lovelace are each Anchorage business owners.
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