My Vote to Sustain the Governor’s Veto of HB 57
Today (May 20th, 2025) I voted to sustain Governor Dunleavy’s veto of House Bill 57, and I want Alaskans to understand why.
Despite the headlines and political spin from some legislators and special interests, HB 57 was not a serious attempt at education reform. It was a massive spending package with little accountability and no meaningful policy change to improve student outcomes. Here’s what the bill actually did:
Class Size “Limitations” The bill included only a non-binding target for class sizes ~ not an enforceable limit. That’s not reform, that’s optics.
Charter School Expansion HB 57 failed to expand charter opportunities. It added no new authorizers, created no new avenues for innovation, and offered no meaningful increase in parental choice.
Cell Phone Policy The bill’s much-touted cell phone policy was riddled with loopholes and lacked any enforcement mechanism. It amounted to little more than a suggestion.
Education Task Force The bill proposed yet another task force ~ nearly identical to the 2014 Sustainable Education Task Force. That task force’s recommendations were ignored, and there’s no reason to believe the outcome would be any different this time.
Let’s be honest: this bill was about one thing ~ adding $200 million to the $1.2 billion we already spend each year on K–12 education. And yet, only a small fraction of that money would ever reach the classroom, our excellent teachers, or our students. The rest would feed the same broken education-industrial complex that has failed too many Alaskan families.
Every Republican in this building, whether they supported or opposed the override, is committed to improving education; pumping more money into a system built on a one-size-fits-all, union-backed model isn’t the answer.
We need bold reform, strong accountability, and real school choice. Our kids deserve an education system that prepares them to thrive whether they attend public, private, charter, homeschool, or hybrid schools.
Some have said, “Well, at least it’s something.” But Alaskans don’t expect us to settle. They expect leadership. I will always choose real, meaningful reform over empty promises.
And I will continue asking the hard question: Are schools here for our kids ~ or are our kids being used to justify more funding for districts?
Alaska’s children deserve better. I’ll keep fighting for a system that puts them first.
Representative Kevin McCabe, House District 30
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau, AK
June
It’s the heat that defines us this month. It greets us at daybreak with its promise, but in an hour or so, it bears down on our shoulders and makes us dream of shade and something cold to drink.
The best thing about our hot season, however, are evenings when most of the earth cools, and that breeze slides in off the mesa and caresses our cheeks. Then it’s time to sit, and laugh, and tell stories and just be with someone we love. Then is the culmination of a day we can be proud of.
Inside each of us, we silently and privately applaud ourselves, because the hot day tried us, but we did it. All day. We made it through the heat today. Made it with our hands today. Made it through to another precious June evening when we can sit on the patio with something cold and someone sweet.
So it gets hot in the daytime. Okay. But just don’t forget to give us these evenings, these blessed evenings when we can recall what cooler weather felt like.
Without these evenings, it would just be another hot summer day.
Brought to you by the nice folks at New Mexico Magazine, who have given so much of themselves in helping readers get good reading about the Southwest.
Slim Randles
Alburquerque, NM
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