By ALEX GIMARC
I listen (however painfully) to the other side in the political debates of the day, especially if a particular politician has “grown in office” and joined the other team.
One of these is State Senator Cathy Giessel, currently the Senate majority leader.
She was first elected to the State Senate as a conservative in 2010, and was targeted by then-AFL/CIO head Vince Beltrami in a knock-down, drag out, full-body-contact campaign in 2016, a campaign she won by a couple percentage points. Somewhere along the way, she started drifting left politically, irritating her constituents sufficiently to get removed from office in the 2020 Republican primary. She was reelected two years later in a newly reconfigured district under ranked-choice voting. Upon that reelection, her new best friends forever were the big labor unions who now supported her, and she immediately caucused with Democrats.
Giessel writes a weekly newsletter. The latest version was all about justifying increases in education spending. She starts it with the following question:
Should a child’s ability to read depend on the price of oil?
She then says no, based on: Our Constitution requires the State of Alaska to “maintain a system of public schools open to all children of the state…:
The rest of the newsletter is an attempt to justify the Senate majority effort to jack up public education spending, dumping more money into a failing system expecting different results. Her crack about the price of oil is a nicely crafted bait and switch, as her majority already has that increased spending paid for with the Permanent Fund dividend and an eventual raid on the Permanent Fund itself.
Note that not a single word is written about accountability for either the public education establishment or the legislators who keep increasing its funding.
Note also that there is nothing in the State Constitution that demands a specific dollar amount spent per student. Indeed, in this state, the more money spent on public education generally ends up in worse educational outcomes. If high per-student spending was truly as important as she pretends, the Bush schools would be doing best of all, as they get the most money per student. But they don’t.
What actually works is that the closer control of the spending is to the student (in the hands of the parents), the better the educational outcome. This is why the Homeschoolers are doing best of all, at a miniscule cost per student per year compared to the massive funding of the public schools.
When control of the money is far, far away from parents you get foolishness like we have here in Anchorage with an unqualified Superintendent, DEI, CRT, the trans agenda, and occasional porn in the school libraries. The Superintendent apparently believes things are going well enough that he feels free to dabble with turning ASD into a sanctuary for illegals.
The tragedy of all this is that historically bad failing statewide school systems are being reformed, particularly in the South. Bob Griffin on Feb 7 wrote about the stunning improvement of Mississippi public education. Louisiana has a similar story.
Why not Alaska? Because we confuse increased spending with better educational outcomes, something we’ve demonstrated does not happen.
The Senate majority is telling us what they are going to do. The House majority is not far behind. It is up to us to make sure they are not successful.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
Lets do all the exact same things but with more pay and benefits, that should fix everything!
Until both teaching and promotion of students is connected with merit and achievement, nothing will change. In the end it is the students and our society that suffer because of greed and lack of accountability on the part of the educational institution, and that largely the fault of crooked unions.
They are just after more PFD money they don’t care about education they just want more money for their union buddies. The politicians are crooked.
Anybody supporting these politicians and huge increases in school funding without accountability can’t be thinking straight. They might also be involved in the money laundering scheme going on at ASD and the rest of the state.
With a big PFD sitting there, the politicians are frothing at the mouth to get all of it and spend it wake up Alaskans.
Sorry, Cathy, more funding without teachers demonstrating higher test scores in reading, science and math is a no-go. This should be a basic for you, yet somehow you are missing the entire point. More funding only goes to teacher, admin and the NEA/AFT – and does nothing to improve student scores. The entire state sees this. Why are you so blind? Please, next time you run for re-election, please make sure you’re registered with the Democrat party so we can find a better explanation for your idiocracy.
I was in and out of Juneau a lot when Cathy Geissel was first elected. I was impressed with her work ethic, her dedication to the state as a whole, with a perspective and attitude of someone raised in the interior who was a lifelong Alaskan and spoke as such. Very independent. I thought she was one to watch. I’m not in her district, but I have always received her newsletter.
Now she doesn’t seem to have a personal position on anything, isn’t innovative in a plan, she shows no personal convictions. It’s as if she only wants to part of the largest group or anything that she thinks can keep her elected.
Thieves. That’s all they are.
It has nothing to do with education or children. It is about power and money for the unions.
Here’s a deal. Better results first, and dump DEI.
Then, maybe, talk more money.
Rarely does one see such a case of having sold a soul for power.
But there she is.
Oh, the misconceptions and out right lies. Greater than 80% of homeschoolers opt of testing. Their graduation rate is lower than most public schools. Stating bush schools cost the most without talking about, size, the cost of oil and electricity in the equation. Anchorage schools are not sanctuary schools, but they have said if you don’t come with a warrant you are not taking a child. Guess what if you go in and take a child without authorization, it would normally be considered kidnapping. The policy hasn’t changed just the racist take on it has. Public education has been targeted for destruction since integration became an expectation, no more separate but unequal schools. Under the MAGA movement the push for segregation will become stronger and stronger.
I left her “house” a long time ago. She has proven to me to be a calloused, unhinged, uncompassionate Democrat hiding in Republican clothing. And she has really aged while in office.
Great article, Alex. Don’t have to read between the lines to get the frustration.
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Why not Alaska? Mississippi showed us public education operating in a red-state can be salvaged, but Alaska’s public-education system operates much differently, like it’s in a blue state.
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Alaska’s public-education priorities are very different: getting money, spending money, hiring lobbyists, indoctrinating children, grooming children, perverting children, mutilating children, paying off teachers’ unions, harboring illegal aliens, pushing contracts to union friends, using Covid-19 as an excuse for everything, and, if time permits, pushing semi-literate children out to make room for younger victims.
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With respect, Alex, “we” don’t confuse increased spending with better educational outcomes.
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That’s done for us, not free of charge by a corrupt organization of elected and unelected officials who, under color of law, appear to commit honest services fraud on a regular basis, who are insulated from accountability by Alaska’s corrupt grand jury and election systems.
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Accountability for what, ongoing violations of federal laws like RICO, Honest Services Fraud, Color of Law, Bringing in and harboring certain aliens, that, if reported persistently and factually and splattered all over the blogosphere might get serious attention from President Trump’s Justice, Education, and Homeland Security departments? Yes.
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If it’s up to us to make sure they’re not successful, how do we find, fix, and finish their racket? Where’s it vulnerable to attack? How can they be manipulated to turn on each other, eat their own? If their racket needs money and power to run, how can the supply be disrupted?
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Dialogue between you and David Boyle might turn up some really good thoughts on how to chop Alaska’s education industry down to manageable size.
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What a lousy rotten state of affairs it is when the best we can say about Alaska’s failed education industry is some small part of it improved from F to D- and it’s up to us to make sure “they” don’t charge us even more for that improvement.
Anchorage was presented its choices: Close down some school buildings and have funds to educate, or pay for school buildings and let education suffer.
The glaring elephant in the room is the lack of common sense. If Mississippi is doing well then what are they using as curriculum? If our Alaska Charter schools are doing better then what is the curriculum they are using, singularly or as a class of schools.?Asked as a past school board member, I and other curriculum that is working, seeking board members sought out successful schools and asked those questions. The outcome was these curriculum improves. Math: Saxon Math. It is taught in sequence with review of each segment is a continuing process. A highly structured curriculum proven successful where ever accepted.
Language Arts: Spaulding on the Road to Writing. This is a strong phonic based curriculum that has a proven record of success with K-3 and beyond. Here the issue is teacher/staff reluctance to teach phonics over their preferred “Whole Word”(Sight Reading) method which is reflected in the current levels of reading.
which leads to the root issue in both subjects.
In my opinion teachers of to day are second or even third generation of having been taught reading by “Whole Language” (Sight reading). As a result the profession struggles against any change that brings discomfort to their day. When you do find a willing teacher who accepts the training, the smiles that develop as their charges improve is worth the struggle of their time to make the change.
Lastly, were any interested, the over all social studies./history/ and governance of the curriculum;
“Core Knowledge” This is a sequentially taught course that gives a child from K through 8th grade.
Core Knowledge:
‘https://www.ixl.com/ela/topics?partner=bing&adGroup=Search%20-%20ELA%20-%20General%20-%20Mod%20Broad%20-%20US+Language%20Arts&msclkid=3b6566cb3f6511e6b16a016daf975330&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Search%20-%20ELA%20-%20General%20-%20Mod%20Broad%20-%20US&utm_term=%2Blanguage%20%2Barts%20%2Bteaching&utm_content=Language%20Arts
Saxon math: ‘https://www.hmhco.com/programs/saxon-math
Spalding Writing on the Road to Reading: ‘https://spalding.org/
You can thank me later: Cheers, Al Johnson-Ketchikan