In my years as a nurse working in hospitals, I learned a critical lesson about crisis: you have to triage. You can’t solve every problem at once, so you treat the most at-risk patient first.

Right now, that patient is the Anchorage School District.

Yesterday, Mayor LaFrance made the difficult but practical decision to ask the Assembly to set aside the proposed sales tax initiative to focus exclusively on a one-time funding contribution for our schools.

I believe this is exactly the kind of steady, reality-based leadership Anchorage needs.

I’ve heard from so many of you in Midtown who were skeptical about a broad new sales tax at a time when families are already feeling the pinch at the grocery store and utility bills. I’ve also heard from parents and teachers who are terrified about the cuts facing our classrooms.

By hitting pause on the sales tax, we are doing two things that I value deeply:

1.    We are listening. We acknowledge that Anchorage wasn’t ready for a broad tax measure without more conversation.
2.    We are focusing. We are directing all our energy toward the most urgent mandate we have: providing a quality education for our kids.

As a paralegal who has spent years advocating for families navigating broken systems, I know that “good enough” isn’t the best we can do for our students. We need to support our schools in every way possible…not just to keep the lights on, but to stop the brain drain of educators leaving the profession.

And we must ensure that if we ever do ask voters to invest in the future, it’s with a clear plan and for the priorities that matter most. Let’s get to work on a solution that keeps both our schools strong and our neighborhoods thriving.

Janice