From Lisa Demer in Juneau --

Five teens from the village of Alakanuk showed up at the governor's press availability Tuesday. The governor's office was hot and crowded with TV cameras, newspaper reporters and Web journalists.

After reporters asked endless questions about the capital budget, oil taxes, gas taxes, and such, 17-year-old Freddie Edmund raised his hand.

"In regard to the capital budget, what will prevent Alakanuk from getting a new school?" Edmund, dressed up in a tie, asked Gov. Sean Parnell.

"That's a great question," the governor responded. The village is on the rural school construction list, along with others, Parnell told the kids. But legislators still need to approve the funding.

"They can be part of the capital budget this year ... either through a financing mechanism or general fund cash," Parnell said.

The governor said he's visiting Alakanuk, two other Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta villages and the hub of Bethel this week, in part to get a look at the schools for himself. Alakanuk, a Yup'ik village of about 670 people, is on the lower Yukon River about 15 miles from the Bering Sea.

The students stayed after the press briefing to hand the governor a DVD they made about their school. They had been giving it out to legislators all day. In one scene, a bunch of bundled up children are pictured on a deck are with the words " How are we supposed to learn if there is no space for us?"

After the press briefing, the students talked to a reporter about their crowded K-12 school. It was built for 100 but houses 228, Desiree Joe, 16, said. Another teen said storage buildings have been turned into classrooms. The rooms are cold and don't have bathrooms. The school can't handle kids in wheelchairs, either. Hallways are used for storage. There are no sprinklers and the village has no fire department.

A teacher, Paul Tancrede, who accompanied the kids to Juneau, said the trip cost the school district and the student council over $15,000. They did cake walks to raise some of the money.

The crowding means the school can't offer very many advanced classes, Tancrede said. High school kids there can't even take four years of hard academics, which would be required for full scholarships under a Parnell proposal.

A new school for Alakanuk is No. 1 on the state Department of Education's list of rural capital projects, said education spokesman Eric Fry. The village doesn't have a property tax base, so almost all of the money would come from the state. The school would cost an estimated $47.4 million, including just under $1 million in local match, Fry said.

While the Legislature didn't fund any new rural schools for the current budget year, it put money into the school construction grant fund for major maintenance. And in the 2009 budget year, lawmakers designated $106 million for four new rural schools.