Bob, Thank you for your intelligent, fair comments. I am a first year teacher, in a Native village in the bush. This is my first Alaska experience; decided to teach after a 30ish year career as a lawyer, and a (surprising to me) unsatisfying retirement. My observations, obviously, need to be filtered through my inexperience with teaching and Alaska living-especially living in the bush. Our school budget is shockingly high, even though our teacher salaries and administrative costs are not out of line with those of Michigan, where I practiced law. It appears to me that the major cost difference is the transportation, maintenance, and shipping costs. I haven't studied this, it's completely anecdotal. When you cite the statistic that Alaska has the  "best funded" schools on the planet, does this include the costs of maintaining and operating schools in one of the most inhospitable environments in America? Thank you.