Mat-Su
Alaska Never Actually Recovered
In February, the Anchorage School Board voted 5-2 to close three more elementary schools. Fire Lake and Lake Otis were running at roughly 50% capacity. The district has now shuttered eight schools in ...
Virtual Districts Are the Only Ones Growing in Alaska
Galena City School District is a village of roughly 500 people on the Yukon River, 270 air miles west of Fairbanks. It has one road in and no road out. It also enrolls 8,279 students, making it the fo...
Fairbanks Closed Three Schools. It Was Not Enough.
Christine Fik's children attended Pearl Creek Elementary, a school their family considered a community, not just a building. In February 2025, the Fairbanks North Star Borough school board voted 5-2 t...
Half of Alaska's Districts Hit Record Lows
In Sleetmute, a village of 80 people on the Kuskokwim River, an architect declared the school building unsafe for occupancy in 2021. The foundation had deteriorated to rubble. The Kuspuk School Distri...
Anchorage Lost More Students Than All of Alaska
Campbell STEM Elementary is Alaska's only STEM-certified elementary school. It has a waitlist. And it will close this spring because the Anchorage School District cannot afford to keep its doors open....
Alaska Enrollment Hits Seven-Year Low
Anchorage lost 4,530 students in seven years. Fairbanks lost 2,017. Juneau lost 753. Together, Alaska's three largest traditional school districts shed more students than the entire state did, because...
Alaska Publishes 2025-26 Enrollment Data
Last year, Alaska's public school enrollment dropped to 126,284 students. It looked like the state might be finding a floor — the previous two years had shown modest growth that nearly erased the COVI...