Editor 
By DAVID BOYLE
Do you ever wonder who paid for the many students, young children, and adults to trek to Juneau and agitate against public school choice?
Who paid for the education industry to trek to Juneau to beg for more money for a less-than-mediocre K-12 education system?
What would you say if you were told that you, the taxpayer, actually paid for their travel, meals, and lodging?
Indirectly, through federal taxes, you did pay for those who filled the entrances to the House chambers to influence and intimidate legislators during the vote to override Governor Dunleavy’s veto of SB 140. The bill would have increased K12 funding with no accountability for results.
Let’s follow the money. In this case, it was the Alaska Children’s Trust that funded the travel of the Great Alaska Schools’ lobbying effort to intimidate legislators into overriding the governor’s veto.
The Alaska Children’s Trust is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is limited by the IRS in funding lobbying efforts. It usually does good work by providing grants to organizations that protect children, educate parents, and help prevent child abuse.
One of the founders of the Great Alaska Schools organization is the current Rep. Alyse Galvin. She has lobbied for more and more K-12 spending for many years.
Here is the Facebook post from Great Alaska Schools organization stating that the ACT funded their travel to the legislature for lobbying:
Here are the grant criteria from its website:
“Eligibility. Applications are accepted from qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, tribes, local or state governments, schools, or Regional Educational Attendance Areas in the state of Alaska. Organizations that have received past awards and are in good standing are eligible to apply. Applicants with open Alaska Children Trust grants must be current on all grant reporting. Applications from organizations with outstanding grant reports will not be accepted.
“Non-Eligible: Individuals, for-profit, 501(c)(4) or (c)(6) organizations, non-Alaska based organizations, and federal government agencies are not eligible for competitive grants.
Applications for religious indoctrination or other religious activities, endowment building, deficit financing, fundraising, lobbying, electioneering and activities of political nature will not be considered.”
One can clearly see that the ACT violated its grant eligibility criteria in 3 instances:
- – The Great Alaska Schools organization is not an eligible organization.
- – The Great Alaska Schools is an independent expenditure organization. GAS only filed one report with APOC for 2014.
- – Great Alaska Schools used the ACT grant to lobby legislators.
Maybe the ACT was pressured by one of its board members, Margo Bellamy, to pay for the lobbying activity. Bellamy, president of the Anchorage School Board, is the ACT vice chair.
So, where does the ACT get its funding?
Much of it comes from the federal government, otherwise known as you the taxpayer, through grants.
Here is the grant data from the ACT federal tax return for 2022 that shows it received government grants totaling $418,449:
It is not possible to break down how much of the government grants came from the State of Alaska.
But in FY 2019 one can see from the DHSS website how the ACT received $250,000 of federal money:
And in FY 2022 the ACT received $200,000 of federal funds; the State chipped in another $50,000.
Even the Municipality of Anchorage, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, and Georgetown University contribute to the ACT. Some of these donations probably go to better the lives of Alaskans. But remember, money is fungible and can be spent on lobbying Alaska Legislators too.
In other words, you, the taxpayer funded the lobbying efforts by the Great Alaska Schools to pressure and intimidate legislators to overturn the governor’s veto of AB 140, a bill that sent loads of money to the K-12 schools with no accountability for increasing student achievement.
Always follow the money. That will lead you to the truth.
Here is link to the Alaska Children’s Trust website.
Here is a link to the Alaska Children’s Trust 2022 federal tax return.
