Fast Facts

educates
nearly

43,500

students
includes

97

schools and
facilities
employs
more than

6000

Alaskans

  • Building the ideal student experience

    Graduation Graph

    Student learning, achievement, and lifelong success are the focus of the Anchorage School District. Within the District, families have many academic choices to meet a variety of student needs. Equitable access and opportunity are keys to building a successful learning path for each student. ASD celebrates our differences and is committed to inclusion of all our community's languages, cultures, and perspectives.

    Increasing the Graduation Rate

    Over the last 10 years, the graduation rate for Anchorage students has increased. Offering students maximum academic choices, high school graduates enjoy personal benefits such as better job opportunities, a sense of pride, college opportunities, and higher wages.

  • The Anchorage School District’s (ASD) focus for the 2022-2023 budget is to maintain class size, focus on safety, and meet Board goals---which all support students in achieving academic growth. To do this, ASD must be responsible with its financial planning in the long term. It must be prudent. It must have a realistic understanding of current and future costs and revenues.

    Those futures are forecasting a General Fund deficit of more than $67 million as the Base Student Allocation (BSA), which drives state funding of public education, has not been inflation proofed. Since 2017, ASD has received flat revenue from the State of Alaska (SOA) through the BSA formula. Again, the funding mechanism does not account for inflation, which is a real expense. For more than five years, inflation has reduced purchasing power at a level of approximately $40 million less than what the District could afford in 2017 in real dollars. This, coupled with a declining student enrollment in our city, continues to negatively impact ASD’s ability to maintain smaller class sizes to better address student learning.

    ASD has been using federal, one-time funds to fill the gap and offset the deficit. Now those emergency funds are running out. The relief grants can only be spent once, in a limited time frame, and then they are gone. One-time funding is not the responsible, long-term financial planning and investment education warrants in our state. The District used approximately $36 million in CRRSA, federal relief funds, this year to maintain class size to best meet the educational needs of students.

    Absent major and immediate adjustments to how the SOA provides revenue for public education by adjusting for inflation, ASD’s deficit could have a significant impact on public education in the Municipality of Anchorage as early as 2024. Please know, ASD has streamlined functions and reorganized for efficiencies, which resulted in a utilization of shared facilities and the closure of two schools.

    ASD takes great care of its people, and our history demonstrates this. We are proud to be a vital and important part of the community. The success of our young people now will drive the success of our city into the future.

    The Anchorage School District (ASD) is committed to our students’ education; that is our fundamental purpose.

Meetings/Sessions

  • The Administration has briefed the fiscal year 23 preliminary budget to the school board.
    The following links will open the recordings of that briefing for an in-depth understanding of next year’s budget.



    Feb. 1 Presentation

    Feb. 8 Presentation

Media

State Foundation Formula and Local Taxes

  • Step 1
    School Size Adjuster
    Schools and Dollar Signs
    The school-size factor table is used to calculate the adjusted Average Daily Membership (ADM) for each school
    41,325 -> 47,446
    Step 2
    District Cost Factor
    Map of Alaska with dollar signs
    The district's school size adjusted ADM is multiplied by the district cost factor
    47,446 = 47,446
    Step 3
    Special Needs Factor
    Bilingual Education / Special Education/ Gifted and Talented / Vocational Education
    The previously adjusted ADM is multiplied by 1.20, providing an additional 20%
    47,446 -> 56,935
    Step 4
    CTE Factor
    CTE Stidents
    The previously adjusted ADM is multiplied by 1.015, providing an additional 1.5%
    56,935 -> 57,789
    Step 5
    Intensive Needs Factor
    Teacher with many students
    The intensive needs count is multiplied by 13 to determine the final Adjusted ADM
    57,789 -> 71,036
    Step 6
    Correspondence Factor
    Many students
    The district's correspondence count is added in and multiplied by .90
    71,036 -> 72,967

     

  • District adjusted ADM

    72,967

     

     

    Base Student Allocation

                     $5,930

     

     

    Basic need (BSA x ADM)

    $432,695,725

     

     

    Required local effort (property taxes)

    $(112,606,410)

    		 $42,492,985,048
    x 2.65
    $112,606,410

    MOA Property Values
    Mills
    Total Required Local Taxes

    State Reduction for Federal Impact Aid Received

    $(7,168,320)

    		  

     

    State Foundation Revenue

    $325,686,551

     

     

    State Quality Schools Grant

                $1,201,052

     

     

    Total State Revenue

          $312,919,995

     

     

    Required Local Taxes

    $112,606,410

     

     

    Additional Allowable Taxes

    (23% of Basic Need + Quality Schools)

     

            $99,788,306

     

     

    Total Allowable Taxes

          $214,394,716

     

     

     

    Read more about the Foundation Funding Formula

General Fund Budget - $549.5 million

  • GF

  • FY 23 GF Expenditures