By JODI TAYLOR

Concerned parents are asking that Anchorage School District begin in-class school immediately.  Not only are many schools across the U.S. and the world attending school in person, many of the districts throughout Alaska are now attending in person. 

Sign the petition at this link.

A recent Yale study tracking young children in all 50 states found there to be no difference of infection rate between children who stayed at home and children who went to daily childcare. ASD’s remote learning negatively impacts children (and their families).  For the following reasons, children in Anchorage are best served by attending school in person:

1.      Equal Education Opportunity.   

Low-income, special needs, minority, and foster children are adversely impacted by remote learning.  This is born out in data; nationwide, about 30 percent of Native families and about 20 percent of Black and Latino families do not have access to the internet or have it only through a smartphones, compared with 7 percent of White families and 4 percent of Asian families.  Where remote learning is often plagued with challenges in low-income families, higher income families have additional options for furthering their children’s education. 

Some families have opted to send their children to private schools, utilize private tutors in conjunction with Anchorage School District’s home schooling, hired private teachers, and even temporarily relocated using teleworking to enable grandparents or other family members to oversee their children’s education.  

Not all families can do that. The education gap that already exists in Anchorage is further exacerbated; contrast students with remote schooling for a year (with many students not attending) to those who have been privately tutored. The obvious disparity dictates immediate action.

2.      Emotional, Social and Physical Impacts.

Dr. Danielle Dooley, medical director of Children’s National Hospital and a pediatrician said, “I am really seeing the negative impacts of these school closures on children,” including: mental health problems, hunger, obesity due to inactivity, missing routine medical care and the risk of child abuse — on top of the loss of education.

This is also being seen on a local level.  A local nurse practitioner has seen children who have gained 40 pounds since COVID-19, children coming to the office with imagined worries just to see someone and have an emotional connection, children with severe mental health issues, and this nurse is very concerned about unreported abuse with children not in school. 

This is not just a problem for younger children but is especially prevalent among older students.

3.      Reasonable, Precautionary Measures.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has repeatedly recommended opening schools, and many districts have listened and have been able to fulfill their core mission of teaching students in a safe manner. Some families may deem it best for their family to remain in a remote learning model – perfect, as it’s already available.  ASD’s own survey has shown most families desire, desperately, to have their children back in full-time.  

It’s time for the ASD Board of Education, Assembly, and our Mayor to address that demand.   Let’s get our students back in school and learning.

Jodi Taylor is a mother of five ASD students, an ASD graduate, and believer that education is a great equalizer.

Lies and mischaracterization of Sen. Dan Sullivan by Alan Gross have prompted me to write this response.

I worked with Dan while he was Alaska’s Attorney General and while he was commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources.  

I traveled to many villages with Dan while he chaired the Rural Alaska Sub-Cabinet, seeking solutions to the complex and challenging issues faced by many Alaskans residing in rural Alaska — issues like fuel costs, transportation, unemployment, public safety, domestic violence, sexual assault, and many other difficult problems.  

What Dan experienced in these villages he took to heart and acted on.  As an example, Dan was instrumental in spearheading the “Choose Respect” initiative, taking on a dark subject few had the courage or character to tackle.  

I also worked with Dan on many projects. The most memorable was his determination to return Alaska Native allotments that once served as fish and hunting camps to Native families. Alaska Native allotment applications that were stuck in a bureaucratic limbo for decades were resolved under Dan’s watch. 

In our travels together, Dan sat for hours listening to beloved elders like Walter Soboleff and Sidney Huntington, seeking their wisdom and learning from their stories. 

Honesty and respect are core values of Alaska Native people, so for this Native Alaskan, Alan Gross’ lies are shameful and show his true character. 

John Moller is a fisherman who lives in Juneau.

By JOHN STURGEON

“How are you voting on Ballot Measure 2?” 

It’s a question many Alaskans have yet to answer. You’ve probably heard it has something to do with ranking candidates and putting everyone into one big primary. But despite the millions spent by out-of-state billionaires to prop up Ballot Measure 2, they really haven’t explained much.

There’s a reason for that.

The truth is that the dangers of Ballot Measure 2 – all 25 pages and 74 sections – can’t be conveyed in 15-second soundbite.

What I’m about to tell you will take a few minutes to read, but it’s critical that you know why this initiative would be an unmitigated disaster for our democracy.

In 2016, Maine become the only state in the country to utilize ranked choice voting after 388,273 voters in a state of 1.3 million people approved the measure. What followed was a travesty. The very next election, a moderate congressman named Bruce Poliquin won his election by a margin of 2,632 votes. Unfortunately, the ranked choice computers didn’t agree with Maine’s voters. 

After nearly two weeks of chaos, the algorithms decided voters actually preferred Poliquin’s opponent, Jared Golden. But here’s where it gets crazy. Over 8,000 voters had their ballots thrown out because they didn’t want to rank candidates they didn’t like. Others simply made a mistake when filling out the 25-bubble ballot. This meant Golden was declared the winner with less than 50 percent of the vote. 

Just like that, ranked choice voting’s house of cards came crumbling down. No majority winner, the most attack ads in state history, a moderate candidate kicked out of office, and no reduction in partisanship. In fact, Poliquin called it the “nastiest” race of his career while Maine’s moderate governor deemed it “the most horrific thing in the world.”

Fast forward to 2020 where Susan Collins and Sara Gideon are locked in a drag-out brawl for a Senate seat in Maine. The race has set a new record in Maine for political spending at over $150 million, including $70 million in outside expenditures and $10 million in dark money. Maine’s primary TV market has seen $89 million in spending – more than both Chicago and Dallas. 

Much like war profiteers, political operatives are the only winners as Mainers tear each other apart.

Across the country, it’s more of the same. In 2010, a San Francisco supervisor’s candidate won with 4,321 votes after 9,503 votes were thrown out during 20 rounds of computerized runoffs. To put that in simpler terms, the winner claimed just 21 percent of the votes cast that day in a runoff between two candidates. 

This systemic problem has been politely termed “ballot exhaustion” by ranked choice backers.  Personally, I call it ballot fraud when an American shows up to cast a vote only to have it thrown in the garbage bin. I have a feeling most Alaskans agree.

The results in San Francisco and Maine are not an anomaly. University research shows a whopping 10 to 27 percent of ballots are thrown out in an average ranked choice election. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom, who won election under ranked choice voting in 2007, called criticized its false promise of greater democracy.

Then there’s the “spoiled ballots” – another fancy word for votes that don’t get counted. Remember how “butterfly ballots” cost Al Gore the 2000 presidential election when many voters struggled with a slight change in ballot design? Ranked choice is butterfly ballots on steroids. The victims? Older Alaskans, those in lower socio-economic brackets, and minorities who are not native English speakers. This isn’t theoretical – it’s exactly what university research found in San Francisco.

In Minneapolis, ranked choice voting had a direct impact on spoiled minority ballots while whites were unaffected. San Francisco saw a drop in minority turnout. The Kansas ACLU has claimed an 8 percent drop in turnout can be expected, especially among “new and casual voters.” Another peer-reviewed study found that ranked choice voting fails to achieve a majority winner 61 percent of the time – an incredible statistic that undermines the entire house of cards Ballot Measure 2 is built upon. 

Folks, this is politics at its worst. That’s why ranked choice voting has already been tried and repealed in cities across the country. In Pierce County, Washington, ranked choice voting was kicked to the curb only three years after implementation by an overwhelming 71 percent of voters. Burlington, Vermont’s rejection occurred after a mayor won election with only 29 percent of the first-place votes.

This isn’t about left, right, or middle. It’s about the trail of destruction left behind by ranked choice voting wherever it rears its sinister head.

It’s about the single mom working two jobs who doesn’t have time to research and rank 15 candidates just so that her vote doesn’t get thrown out. It’s about our elders and pioneers who expect to walk into that voting booth and pick their champion the same way they’ve done since statehood. It’s about the veterans who’ve lost friends and innocence fighting for our precious right to self-determination.

Most importantly, it’s about protecting your voice from a misguided experiment that is doomed to fail.

John Sturgeon is chairman of Defend Alaska Elections—Vote No on 2. He previously spent 12 years fighting to reverse federal intrusion on Alaska’s public lands, achieving victory at the U.S. Supreme Court twice.