Students walk out of schools across Alaska to protest the governor’s veto of education package

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Students in Alaska’s capital walked out of school Thursday and marched through the halls of the statehouse to protest Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s latest education veto and the Legislature’s failure to override it.

The walkout was part of a protest organized by the executive board of the Alaska Association of Student Governments, said Felix Myers, a student organizer from Sitka. Plans called for 40-minute walkouts at schools across Alaska, with 40 representing the number of votes lawmakers needed to override the veto. Lawmakers fell one vote short in their override attempt last month. The walkout was planned for around 11 a.m., a time chosen in part to minimize disruptions and to ensure participation, he said.

“We’ve tried to be heard, we’ve tried to be listened to and we’ve been ignored, and that’s why we’ve gotten to this point,” he said in a phone interview from Anchorage. Myers is a student adviser to the state board of education but said he was not speaking or acting in that capacity concerning the walkout.

Dunleavy in March made good on a threat to veto a package overwhelming passed by lawmakers that called for a $175-million increase in aid to districts through a school funding formula. He complained the measure lacked provisions he supported, including a three-year program offering annual bonuses of up to $15,000 as a way to attract and keep teachers and changes to the application process for charter schools aimed at promoting those schools.

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