A recent major university study on adequacy in K-12 public education spending finds that Alaska not only has one of the most adequately funded K-12 systems in the US, it also has one of the most equitable ones.
In a January 2024 joint report from Rutgers and the University of Miami, Alaska was listed second in the nation for adequacy in K-12 funding in 2021, out of 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Not only was Alaska listed as one of the top most-funded systems, Alaska was also highlighted as having one of the most equitable distributions of education funding to low-income students.
A recent analysis from the Alaska Policy Forum reached a very similar conclusion using a different technique. It’s widely accepted that spending on education will vary greatly based on the affluence of one place or another. It’s no surprise that the U.S. spends more per student on K-12 than Mexico, because the U.S. has a much more affluent population. Although Alaska has one of the highest per-student funding rates in the country, 12 states ranked higher than Alaska in wealth from personal income per capita.