During a joint session of the House and Senate Education committees in February.

Our students all across Alaska represent the strong future of our state.

Constituents told lawmakers Alaska's most rural schools pose serious public health and safety risks to teachers, students and staff.

Please go visit our schools!

Come out to the rural areas take a look at the leaking roof.

and the pots and the pans that are underneath it.

And we don't have space for other students.

In Sleetmute on the Upper Kuskokwim River.

Conditions inside and outside of the school are some of the worst in the state.

The foundation is crumbling.

There's mold throughout the building, and there's a bat infestation in a boiler room.

25 teachers and students spend time here every day.

Last October, Taylor Hayden, who does maintenance work for the school district, gave Alaska's Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, a tour.

And if we go down underneath this section of the building here, over in that section, you can go down there and you just pick up chunks of foundation that are this big.

It's just falling apart.

Multiple reports since 2021 indicate the back portion of Slate Mute School could collapse.

School districts statewide apply annually for construction and maintenance funds from the state Education department.

Hundreds of proposals from rural and urban school districts are ranked.

Those rankings are submitted to lawmakers so they can decide how to fund the state's annual budget.

State records show that over the last 25 years, rural school districts have submitted nearly 1,800 funding requests for capital projects, fixes and improvements to buildings.

Only about 14% of those projects have been funded.

In January, governor Mike Dunleavy introduced his proposed education bill for the coming year, with no mention of money that would be specifically earmarked for school construction and maintenance.

as it is in most capitals and legislatures.

Education is one of the primary functions of a state government.

But Dunleavy's education commissioner Dina Bishop, says her agency isn't solely responsible for fixing the problem.

If something's happening in the school, it's most likely happening in other buildings in the community.

So, you know, like it is a collective Alaskan issue.

That, that we'd be happy to have a seat at the table to discuss.

The majority of students who attend rural public schools in Alaska are indigenous.

Alaska Natives face some of the highest rates of disease and health disparity in the nation.

Problems potentially compounded by conditions inside school buildings.

Speaker Edgmon is Alaska Native and says the issue is clear cut.

I think the evidence speaks for itself.

These bright young children show up every morning to go to school in a in a building that's, that's not fit for even anything but being ready to be demolished.

Last summer, the legislature signed off on the largest infusion of cash to school districts in nearly a decade.

$1.5 million will go to help make repairs in sleetmute.

But it's unlikely that money will be enough.

Funding requests for maintenance and construction projects from rural school districts stand at nearly $478 million this year.

It's money many legislators say doesn't exist In Sleetmute, I'm Emily.

Schwing.