With Dunleavy veto threat looming, lawmakers work toward common ground on education

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is threatening to veto a key bipartisan education bill that would boost state spending on public schools by about a quarter billion dollars a year. Dunleavy says he wants lawmakers to address more of his priorities — like teacher retention bonuses, expanding charter school access and accountability measures. The governor’s priorities are getting a hard look in the Senate — but perhaps not the reception Dunleavy was hoping for.

“Many of the folks who provided testimony reminded us that our education system … does not have a one-size-fits-all approach. We really try to provide choice to all of our communities and to our parents, and that there is a high value to local control, particularly in accountability and fiscal responsibility of use of state funds,” Tobin said.

“There have been conversations between members of the House and Senate and the governor’s leadership to try and figure out how we may accommodate those interests,” Saddler said at a news conference on Tuesday. “Those are ongoing. There’s no results yet.”“The mood of the house this year is much different than last year,” she said. “There’s a consensus that we need to address education and the funding of education, so I don’t think we’re very far apart from the governor and from each other.

Dunleavy has broad power to reduce or zero out budget items with a line-item veto, and Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said that makes it difficult to give much ground.

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