Alaska has recently had a strained relationship with the United States Department of Education – a situation not unique to the state. The issue arose when the Department of Education criticized Alaska’s distribution of COVID-19 education relief funds, with Must Read Alaska (MRAK) reporting on the matter.
Not enough “equity,” you see.
During the allocation of Covid relief funds to states in 2021, Alaska directed the funds to districts as per the state’s established formula.
Earlier this year, Alaska’s Department of Education Commissioner, Deena Bishop, received a strongly worded letter from the U.S. Department of Education, accusing the state of not adhering to the federal government’s “equity” criteria in fund distribution. The federal department threatened to withhold $17.4 million and designate the state as a “high-risk grantee” unless it followed the federal equity formula implemented under the Biden Administration.
The ED, in time, backed down.
Alaska was singled out as the only state put on the federal Department of Education’s naughty list, for not meeting the novel “equity requirements” for use of the funds.
But at the time, Commissioner Bishop wrote, “Alaska’s appropriations complied with the plain language and clear intent of Congress when it passed ARPA and its MOEquity provision; state funding for education was not cut for low-income or any other students during fiscal years 2019-2023 in order to take advantage of new federal funding; instead, Alaska continued to apply its equalized funding formula as required by ARPA.”
Now, as news reporters have all gone off to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, and Kwanzaa, the U.S. Department of Education has quietly backpedaled, issuing a new letter.
The gist of the letter is “never mind.”
One would think that story would end there, right? The U.S. Department of Education probably did.
