Alaska

The Alaska legislature appropriates K-12 funding to the Department of Education and Early Development, and distributes funds to 53 public school districts and Mt. Edgecumbe High School, a state-run boarding school available to students from remote areas. While the legislature controls the University of Alaska’s funding, it provides the university authority to spend its own receipts, including federal grant funding, and tuition and fees. Alaska faces unique challenges in providing educational support to remote, and often small, school districts. Since the last published report on Alaska in this journal, Alaska has struggled with funding state programs, including education, due to the price of oil dropping and a growing deficit, currently over $2.5 billion. Alaska relies on oil revenues, investment earnings, and federal funding as the main sources of revenue, and is the only state without a personal income tax or a state sales tax.