The Alaska House Finance Committee is seen on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Dozens of rural Alaska schools are at risk of not gaining access to faster internet access because of legislative deadlock over a wide-ranging education bill. While legislators say they’re optimistic about the progress of the bill, known as Senate Bill 140, their actions indicate something else.
On Thursday, the House Finance Committee heard a standalone bill to raise the ceiling on internet speeds in Alaska’s schools, an attempt to make statutory change before it is too late for schools to get grants to pay for it.
The move is a sign that lawmakers do not have confidence in the swift passage of SB 140, which was originally drafted to increase internet speeds but was amended by House majority-caucus leaders to include other education requests , including a boost to the base student allocation, a key component of the state’s per-student funding formula for public schools.
The bill discussed Thursday, House Bill 193, would use state money and a federal match to increase the minimum internet speed in state schools from 25 to 100 megabits per second. Education advocates say the bill is about education equity in rural Alaska, where the internet is expensive and can be slow.