Anchorage School District (Loren Holmes)

The Anchorage School District has begun laying off employees after the Trump administration froze $14 million in education funding meant for the district, according to a letter sent by Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt.

The district provided no details on the number of people who would be laid off or the types of positions impacted. Bryantt declined an interview request Wednesday, the day after sending a letter to Anchorage families calling on them to oppose steps taken by the administrations of President Donald Trump and Gov. Mike Dunleavy that are set to reduce funding meant for the district.

The Trump administration earlier this month froze billions of dollars in education funding, including $46 million intended for Alaska schools and funding meant for adult literacy and education programs.

The federal funding freeze comes after Dunleavy vetoed roughly $50 million in education funding from the state budget. Meanwhile, Alaska Education Commissioner Deena Bishop is seeking new rules that could limit how much the Municipality of Anchorage and other local jurisdictions can contribute toward education expenses.

“We are not just managing a crisis. We are resisting the slow dismantling of public education in Alaska,” Bryantt wrote in a letter sent to the families of Anchorage students Tuesday.

Responding to the funding freeze, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was one of 10 Republican U.S. senators who sent a letter Wednesday to a Trump administration official asking him to unfreeze the education grants.

“Withholding these funds will harm students, families and local economies,” the senators wrote in the letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.

“We share your concern about taxpayer money going to fund radical left-wing programs. However, we do not believe that is happening with these funds,” the senators wrote.

Murkowski began her political career as a member of the parent-teacher association for Government Hill Elementary School, an Anchorage public school attended by her sons.

Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan did not sign the letter. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether he supported the funding freeze.

In his letter, Bryantt said that “layoff notices and staff reassignments were issued” but did not provide details on the impacted positions. Bryantt wrote the frozen federal funding was intended for after-school programs, special education, English learner services and Alaska Native student services.

“Now, with the school year weeks away, we are scrambling to preserve critical supports while losing staff and resources,” Bryantt wrote.

District spokespeople said Bryantt was not available for an interview Wednesday or Thursday because he was attending “funding crisis meetings.”

Bryantt in his letter asked for Anchorage residents to resist the funding impacts by reaching out to state legislators, members of the Alaska congressional delegation and members of the state board of education, who are appointed by Dunleavy.

Dunleavy and Bishop published an opinion piece last week in which they accused Bryantt and other education leaders of having “hysterical reactions” to reductions in state education funding. The piece made no mentions of the impacts of the federal funding freeze.

Anchorage School Board member Andy Holleman said Tuesday that Dunleavy and Bishop are “extremely disconnected” from the classroom experience of students in Alaska.

“I do think that the governor wants, ultimately, for-profit private schools in the state, and he’s trying to move things in that direction,” said Holleman. “If that’s his motivation, it’s working out pretty well for him. He’s making public schools not a great place to be.”

Dunleavy has doubled down on his claims that Alaska’s education outcomes can be improved through expanding access to homeschooling and charter schools — which are increasingly popular in urban parts of the state. The governor has called the Legislature into a special session next month, in which he is expected to propose education policy reforms.