Education fundingBoth representatives enter the session with a focus on public education, particularly Story, a longtime Juneau school board member and the current co-chair of the House Education Committee. One of Story’s bills seeks to provide clearer and earlier funding picture to school districts. Under the current funding system, the state distributes a set amount of funding per student to school districts. A second Story education bill would reward Alaskan students for taking public-school teaching or government jobs in-state. The bill proposes funding the program from the Alaska Higher Education Investment Fund, a state investment fund for educational grants and scholarships.