Bob Griffin, a member of the Alaska State Board of Education, didn’t imagine his confirmation hearing in front of hostile members of the Senate Education Committee would be friendly. But he might not have suspected that the committee, led by Sen. Loki Tobin, would grill him and make accusations against him for over 40 minutes.
Tobin, who uses the pronouns “she/her,” accused Griffin of spreading misinformation. Then, relaying rumors she had heard from education industry sources who are hostile to Griffin, she accused him of attending meetings and claiming he was a representative of the Department of Education (he is a member of the department’s governing board), and she accused him of advocating for the illegal and misuse of public funds.
Griffin took the questions one by one and answered them with civility.
“No I have never advocated for the misuse of public funds,” Griffin said.
“That’s curious to me,” Tobin argued. “You were just talking about how you’re supportive of allotments but that was just knocked down by a superior court judge as being unconstitutional usages. So it’s difficult for me to marry those two statements together.”
She was referring to a decision by Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman that eliminates funding for 24,000 homeschool and correspondence school students across the state — a decision that has been appealed to the Supreme Court.
The committee hostility to the governor’s appointee to the Board of Education may portend a tough confirmation hearing in a joint session of the House and Senate, to take place around May 10 and before the May 15 adjournment. Griffin needs 31 votes between the House and Senate to keep his (volunteer) position on the state Board of Education.
Watch the grilling of education advocate Bob Griffin at this link.
