My answer now is a heavy “I can’t.” My wife, Catherine Walker — the 2024 Alaska Teacher of the Year and one of four National Teacher of the Year finalists — and I are leaving. When two people recognized among the most dedicated by the state itself decide they no longer see a future, the “Alaska is a great place to teach” narrative hasn’t just frayed; it has disintegrated.
The reality is that Alaska is the only state in the union that offers its teachers neither a defined-benefit pension nor Social Security. This retirement crisis is fueling the fire of our education system’s collapse. We have the worst educator turnover in the country, and it is proven that high teacher turnover directly impacts student outcomes. When a student loses a teacher midyear or when a school replaces 30% of its staff annually, the continuity of learning is shattered...
In Alaska, our retirement is not only the worst in the nation for teachers, it is the worst in the nation among all professionals. If any of us worked in the private sector with the educational level we have, we would have a 401(k) with an employer match. This is basically what we have with the state of Alaska. But that is where it stops. In the private sector, we would also be paying into Social Security, as would our employer. This is not an option for Alaska teachers. So we end up dead last in not only teacher retirement but retirement in general. And it is not just teachers; all public service areas, including state troopers and firefighters, are being decimated and finding it impossible to staff at the levels needed to provide a high quality of life to Alaskans.
“Alaska is open for business” seems to be a favorite refrain of those refusing to fulfill their constitutional duty to fund services while also refusing to get Alaskans’ fair share from resource extraction. The funny thing is, 49 other states are also open for business, and all 49 arguably have better environments for teachers than Alaska. Alaska is a beautiful state and was a great place for us to raise our children outside and be active. But Alaska needs to realize you can kayak and fish in plenty of other states while also being treated like a professional and earning a secure pension, in addition to having a high quality of life due to funded and respected public sector services and employees.
Cat and I didn’t want to leave. I’ve lived in Alaska since I was 2, and Cat was born here. We’ve raised two kids here and have family here. We wanted to stay and help build the world-class education system our leaders love to talk about. But you cannot have a world-class system when your leaders treat people like a disposable commodity or are actively working to destroy it.
We are the products of Alaska public schools and eagerly enrolled our kids in Anchorage public schools. All we have ever wanted, and all any of the thousands of families we have worked with over the years have ever wanted, is a robust public school experience for our children like we had growing up — one in which they have teachers who are experienced, feel supported and want to stay their entire career in one community and retire with security; schools with electives like art and music; and extracurriculars like sports, theater and clubs. Buildings that are safe and well maintained. At the same time, as community members, Alaskans deserve all public services to be well-funded and maintained and public sector workers to be compensated and taken care of after a lifetime of service to Alaskans. As adults and parents, we have been front-row witnesses to the callous degradation of the quality of life in Alaska, where corporate interests come before residents, where we choose companies over sustainability, and out-of-state workers and tourists over our children. The criminal underfunding of education may be the canary, but unless Alaskans wake up and vote to retake control from corporations and those in power who do their bidding, Alaska as so many of us have known it growing up will no longer exist.
The most maddening part is that there are solutions and other options. This is not the only way. Other resource-heavy states and countries do not have continual deficits and treat public sectors with dignity and pay and benefits requisite with their experience. This problem of billions of dollars flowing through our state but continually having fiscal problems is a uniquely Alaska experience. But when this is the case for a large chunk of someone’s lifetime, like it has been for Cat and me, you realize it is time for us to change, as it is quite possible this state never will.
There really isn’t much more to say that thousands of teachers, troopers, firefighters, families, students, business leaders and concerned community members haven’t said year after year after year about funding, retirement, rhetoric and a complete disregard for the valuable contributions of public schools, public school teachers and all public service employees.
So I’ll just end with, as Douglas Adams wrote, “Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.”
“Alaska is open for business” seems to be a favorite refrain of those refusing to fulfill their constitutional duty to fund services while also refusing to get Alaskans’ fair share from resource extraction. The funny thing is, 49 other states are also open for business, and all 49 arguably have better environments for teachers than Alaska. Alaska is a beautiful state and was a great place for us to raise our children outside and be active. But Alaska needs to realize you can kayak and fish in plenty of other states while also being treated like a professional and earning a secure pension, in addition to having a high quality of life due to funded and respected public sector services and employees.
Cat and I didn’t want to leave. I’ve lived in Alaska since I was 2, and Cat was born here. We’ve raised two kids here and have family here. We wanted to stay and help build the world-class education system our leaders love to talk about. But you cannot have a world-class system when your leaders treat people like a disposable commodity or are actively working to destroy it.
We are the products of Alaska public schools and eagerly enrolled our kids in Anchorage public schools. All we have ever wanted, and all any of the thousands of families we have worked with over the years have ever wanted, is a robust public school experience for our children like we had growing up — one in which they have teachers who are experienced, feel supported and want to stay their entire career in one community and retire with security; schools with electives like art and music; and extracurriculars like sports, theater and clubs. Buildings that are safe and well maintained. At the same time, as community members, Alaskans deserve all public services to be well-funded and maintained and public sector workers to be compensated and taken care of after a lifetime of service to Alaskans. As adults and parents, we have been front-row witnesses to the callous degradation of the quality of life in Alaska, where corporate interests come before residents, where we choose companies over sustainability, and out-of-state workers and tourists over our children. The criminal underfunding of education may be the canary, but unless Alaskans wake up and vote to retake control from corporations and those in power who do their bidding, Alaska as so many of us have known it growing up will no longer exist.
The most maddening part is that there are solutions and other options. This is not the only way. Other resource-heavy states and countries do not have continual deficits and treat public sectors with dignity and pay and benefits requisite with their experience. This problem of billions of dollars flowing through our state but continually having fiscal problems is a uniquely Alaska experience. But when this is the case for a large chunk of someone’s lifetime, like it has been for Cat and me, you realize it is time for us to change, as it is quite possible this state never will.
There really isn’t much more to say that thousands of teachers, troopers, firefighters, families, students, business leaders and concerned community members haven’t said year after year after year about funding, retirement, rhetoric and a complete disregard for the valuable contributions of public schools, public school teachers and all public service employees.
So I’ll just end with, as Douglas Adams wrote, “Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.”
by Ben Walker, Anchorage Daily News | Read more:
Image: Bill Roth
[ed. Sad. It's no surprise that Anchorage, and Alaska in general, has declined precipitously since its former glory days. Many reasons, but here are just a few: Republican skin flints who do nothing but advocate for more government spending cuts each year, along with big tax breaks for industry, and subsidies for any new harebrained, get-rich quick scheme; elimination of the state income tax; an annual Permanent Fund dividend from the state's oil royalty account that attracted a bunch of free-loaders and installed a sense of entitlement in the voting electorate. Many other examples. All that wealth down the drain, even with federal spending that, per capita, tops every other state in the country. See also: Anchorage School Board approves ‘severe’ budget with hundreds of staff layoffs and 3 school closures (ST); and, Lawmakers press for cuts to Department of Corrections spending amid big increases (ADN):] [ed. priorities]
The department’s budget is driven in part by its inflexible staffing formulas. Every correctional facility must be manned by a set number of officers and support staff, determined by the department based on the type of prison and inmates housed in each facility. On average, there are between four and five inmates for every correctional officer in the department. If there aren’t enough employees to meet the requirements, the department doesn’t simply slacken the staffing ratios. Rather, it demands that existing employees work overtime. [...]
The overtime mandates led the department last year to spend over $22 million on more than 329,000 overtime hours, the equivalent of more than 158 full-time employees. Nearly 1,700 individual employees reported working at least one hour of overtime in 2025. Of them, 179 reported at least 500 hours of overtime. Two employees reported more than 2,200 overtime hours each — meaning they worked more than the equivalent of a full-time job, on top of their full-time job.
Of its more than 2,100 funded staffing positions, more than 300 are vacant. The number of filled positions went down last year compared to the year before.
***
Though the number of inmates has remained largely stable since 2019, state spending on the Department of Corrections is up more than 54%, far outpacing inflation. The budget has grown every year since Gov. Mike Dunleavy has taken office, commanding an increasing share of annual state spending. This year’s budget request exceeds $500 million for the first time. [...]The department’s budget is driven in part by its inflexible staffing formulas. Every correctional facility must be manned by a set number of officers and support staff, determined by the department based on the type of prison and inmates housed in each facility. On average, there are between four and five inmates for every correctional officer in the department. If there aren’t enough employees to meet the requirements, the department doesn’t simply slacken the staffing ratios. Rather, it demands that existing employees work overtime. [...]
The overtime mandates led the department last year to spend over $22 million on more than 329,000 overtime hours, the equivalent of more than 158 full-time employees. Nearly 1,700 individual employees reported working at least one hour of overtime in 2025. Of them, 179 reported at least 500 hours of overtime. Two employees reported more than 2,200 overtime hours each — meaning they worked more than the equivalent of a full-time job, on top of their full-time job.
Of its more than 2,100 funded staffing positions, more than 300 are vacant. The number of filled positions went down last year compared to the year before.
