Alaska's school administrators have applied to run a public-school SGO, and Anchorage wants the school boards to start one too

Alaska's public school leaders want a share of the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit. The Alaska Council of School Administrators has applied to put a new nonprofit, RISE (Raising Investment in Student Education), on the state's list of §25F scholarship granting organizations, the Anchorage Daily News reported on October 19. RISE is led by Frank Hauser, who recently stepped down as superintendent of the Juneau School District, and it is the only Alaska-based applicant built to support public school students. Its paperwork went in just after the deadline for the state's first round, and it has not been approved yet.

“I couldn't sit by and just potentially see this opportunity not going towards our students attending public education schools,” Hauser said. “The federal scholarship tax credit was really not designed for public schools. We're going to take advantage of it.” His plan is built around rural Alaska. Small districts run on small staffs, and Hauser expects many of them to struggle with the paperwork the IRS reporting requires, so RISE intends to handle that clerical work for them. Lisa Parady, the council's executive director, said RISE may serve larger districts as well. “It's great that a lot of outside-the-state organizations are showing some kind of interest here, but we know Alaska best and we are prepared to do what we can to best support our children,” she said. In September, Parady had told the paper the council would use the program for public school students in rural areas. Now there's an application in the state's queue.

Anchorage wants a statewide one too. The Anchorage School Board, which runs the state's largest district, has approved a resolution asking the Association of Alaska School Boards to set up a similar organization for public school students. “Instead of sending all of your tax dollars to D.C., you could help us keep some of those dollars local,” Kelly Lessens, chair of the board's governance committee, said at a September meeting. “If you wanted to support high-dose tutoring for example, that's something that these scholarships could do at scale.” Board member Paul McDonogh added language asking the association to keep public funding untouched, put needy students first and report its budget publicly. The resolution goes before a statewide gathering of school board members in November.

Where Alaska's list stands. Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved the first 20 organizations on October 2, and only two of them are based in Alaska: Friends of Spruce Tree Montessori in Fairbanks and Alaska Students First. Education Commissioner Deena Bishop told the Daily News that four more organizations have applied since that list came out, RISE among them. Alaska reviews applications on a rolling basis (a signed letter of interest plus the IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, emailed to SGO@alaska.gov) and plans to send its 2027 list to the IRS by December 1. A brand-new nonprofit still waiting on its exemption isn't shut out. Treasury's temporary rules, at § 1.25F-5T(d)(5), let a state list an organization whose 501(c)(3) application is pending with the IRS, as long as the state lists every pending applicant that asks, marks each one as pending, and certifies that the exemption, once granted, will reach back to January 1, 2027 or earlier.

What a public-school SGO can and can't do. A school district is a unit of government, not a 501(c)(3) public charity, so it can't be an SGO itself. A separate nonprofit like RISE can. The scholarship follows the student: a child qualifies if household income is at or below 300% of area median gross income and the child is eligible to enroll in a public school. The qualified expenses come from the Coverdell list in section 530, which names academic tutoring and special needs services, so the high-dose tutoring Lessens described fits the list. Treasury's detailed guidance on exactly which expenses qualify is still to come. The SGO, not the district, awards the money, and it must fund at least 10 students who do not all attend the same school, spend at least 90% of its income on scholarships, and never earmark a gift for a particular student. Every SGO also has to register on the IRS SGO portal, which has not opened. Our guide to what §25F means for public schools covers the rest.

Why the timing matters. Dunleavy is term-limited, and the governor elected on November 3 takes office on December 7, six days after the state's planned filing. Each state election covers one calendar year, so whether Alaska takes part in 2028 will be the next governor's call. Parady raised exactly that question, and said the council wants to help public school students while the opportunity is there. Donations can start January 1, 2027, at up to $1,700 per taxpayer.

RISE joins a growing list of public school systems treating the credit as money for their own students, from Columbus County, North Carolina to Denver, Clark County and Iowa's school administrators. Track Alaska's approvals on our Alaska SGO page and the state on the Alaska page. A district foundation working toward a state list can go through formation and compliance step by step with the free SGO Builder.