Alaska attorney general wastes state money on embarrassing education fight
Attorney General Kevin Clarkson conjured up a shoddy legal strategy last spring that he hoped would allow Gov. Mike Dunleavy to move ahead with his plan to cut education spending by about 25 percent, which would have led to thousands of layoffs statewide.
Clarkson claimed that a law enacted in 2018 to provide school funding for the fiscal year that began in July 2019 was unconstitutional. He invented this idea with a political goal in mind. He wanted to force the Legislature to have to vote on education funding last spring, which would have allowed Dunleavy to follow though on his plan to cut school funding by $330 million.
According to what Clarkson wrote in Alaska newspapers in May, there is no legal appropriation for schools right now and it is unconstitutional to pretend otherwise.
“If education is not funded this year, it’s on the Legislature, not the governor,” Clarkson warned.
The Clarkson legal trickery on school funding didn’t work. The Legislature did the only sensible thing and ignored him. That led to a court fight and another loss for Clarkson, who has never given a coherent explanation of why he accepts the decision to keep schools open when he is certain that it is unconstitutional.
One of the supporters last year of the law that offends Clarkson was Sen. Kevin Meyer, now the lieutenant governor, who boasted of his support for “early and forward funding of education” in his campaign material in 2018.
Meyer saw nothing wrong with the bill signed by former Gov. Bill Walker. Fourteen other senators and 31 members of the House joined him in backing it. Had Sen. Mike Dunleavy not quit the Senate to run for governor, he probably would have voted for it.
Just as Dunleavy never offered a rational plan to justify massive school funding cuts this year, Clarkson never offered a legal opinion of any merit, just scare tactics better suited for his newspaper columns.
On Tuesday, Juneau Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally entered a final judgement in the case, turning aside Clarkson’s argument and ordering the state to release education funds. This followed a summary judgement issued by Schally in November.
The appropriation was a “valid and constitutional exercise of the Legislature’s authority and responsibility,” the judge found.
Clarkson should follow the ancient wisdom about cutting one’s losses. But don’t be surprised if he continues to waste state money on an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. He won’t say that this was all about the politics of the Dunleavy desire to veto school funds, not about a constitutional principle regarding the dedication of funds.
“This issue is too important not to appeal and get final guidance from the Alaska Supreme Court, so we all know going forward what the rules are,” Clarkson said in a statement last month to the Anchorage Daily News.
Clarkson is not one to say he was wrong or admit that this was all about the politics of the Dunleavy desire to veto school funds and nothing else.