Alaska joined 23 other states on Tuesday in a lawsuit asking a U.S. District Court in Louisiana to block yet another federal Covid-19 vaccine mandate, this one to require Head Start workers and volunteers across the country to be vaccinated.
The lawsuit is another example of the state’s ongoing effort to protect the individual freedoms of Alaskans and preserve the state’s authority under the 10thAmendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“The Biden administration’s misguided and overreaching vaccine and mask mandate to the Head Start program poses a far greater threat to the children of families that rely on this important federal program than the virus does. We know that losing Head Start staff, curtailing essential programming and closing classrooms will hurt kids – not just today – but long into the future,” said Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “This nation should be prioritizing children and families, not putting parents in the untenable situation of choosing between their rights as parents and the education of their kids. This new policy will create obstacles for workers and families that need the program the most. We will continue to fight these policies with every resource we can to protect Alaskans from these unconstitutional mandates.”
The Head Start mandate is one of a series of broad and overreaching Biden Administration actions taken in recent months forcing millions of Americans to choose between submitting to an unwanted vaccine or losing their economic livelihoods. Alaska is already fighting three other mandates in federal court. Those other lawsuits challenge vaccine requirements for federal contractors, private businesses and healthcare providers.
“The federal government has again forced its way into matters delegated to the states and to the people under the 10th Amendment,” said Attorney General Treg Taylor, whofiled the lawsuit on behalf of the state. “Our Head Start workers and volunteers have the right to decide for themselves whether to get vaccinated, without the fear of losing their jobs or without the fear of the federal government defunding Alaska’s preschool programs.”
Alaska has 17 Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Head Start is a federally funded preschool program for children from low-income families.
The Head Start vaccine mandate would apply to more than 273,000 staff and more than 1 million volunteers serving about 864,000 children nationwide. Contractors who come into contact with or provide direct services to Head Start children or families would also be subject to the mandate.
Under the Head Start mandate, workers and volunteers would be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with very limited exceptions. There is no provision for opting out of the requirement through testing. In addition, all Head Start programs would be subject to a masking mandate for both adults and children as young as 2.
The additional, onerous masking requirement will make teachers take away important instructional time to ensure that toddlers are complying with masking rules that potentially interfere with children’s social and emotional development.
Alaska’s lawsuit maintains the vaccine and masking requirements violate the 10th Amendment and that, by attempting to institute the mandates, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has exceeded its authority under federal law.
Joining Alaska in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
On the agenda for Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly is an ordinance rewrite that gives the Assembly chair the right to prohibit items she deems to be a danger or distraction from the room where the Assembly meets.
Although not stated explicitly, this would mean that the chair could take away the American flags, or signs that sometimes people bring into the chambers to wave in protest, since clapping is not allowed. It could also mean she could prohibit firearms from being brought into the Assembly chambers. Currently, they are allowed on city property.
The chair could also prohibit the use of Guy Fawkes masks that some members of the audience are wearing to comply with the Assembly’s mask rule for its meetings. At the meeting illustrated above, the public brought cardboard tombstones for businesses that had been driven out of business by the former mayors’ lockdown orders in 2020 and 2021. These items could be ordered removed, under the proposed ordinance.
At a recent meeting of the Assembly, the leftist media and some Assembly members expressed horror when a man who was arrested for making a disturbance in an Assembly meeting was discovered to also be packing a sidearm. The ordinance gives broad authority to the chair to prohibit firearms or even belt knives worn by many working class men and women.
The agenda item is Ordinance No. AO 2021-117, “an ordinance of the Anchorage Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 2.30 Rules of Procedure for Assembly to codify additional Rules of Procedure for the Assembly and Presiding Officer to promote the efficient, safe and orderly conduct of Assembly business, Assembly Chair LaFrance, Assembly Vice-Chair Constant and Assembly Member Perez-Verdia . 14.B.1. Assembly Memorandum No. AM 771-2021.”
The ordinance gives the chair the right to change the seating chart, and this action is seen as a direct hit at Mayor Dave Bronson.
In past meetings, Chairwoman Suzanne LaFrance has attempted to remove Bronson from the upper dais, where he has a bulletproof guard around him, to a lower level.
Symbolically as much as physically, this would place him beneath her and without the kind of protection she enjoys. It would also allow the Assembly to observe over his shoulder what he is reading or the conversations he is having with his staff during the meeting.
The ordinance also allows the chair to shut down Assembly members who are making what she sees as “dilatory” motions, points or order, or requests for information. This section of the ordinance is clearly aimed at Assemblywoman Jamie Allard, an outspoken conservative who typically has many audience members in her corner during meetings. Allard has used motions, points or order, questions, and other techniques to bring out important points, much to the irritation of the nine liberal members of the Assembly.
The revised ordinance language says:
The chair shall have the authority to make rulings, subject to being overruled by vote of the assembly, to promote the efficient, safe and orderly conduct of Assembly business. That authority shall include:
Establishment of a seating chart, arrangement of chambers. The chair shall have the authority to establish a seating chart for individuals participating in an Assembly meeting, and to prescribe how the physical space of a premise used for an assembly meeting may be used.
Prohibited items. The chair shall have the authority to prohibit members of the public from bringing dangerous or distracting items to Assembly premises, or to require an item to be removed from Assembly premises if it is being used to create an actual disturbance.
Removal for actual disturbance. The chair shall have the right to order a person to be removed from a meeting for creating an actual disturbance to the meeting. Direction to security. The chair shall have the right to direct security guards at Assembly chambers, in furtherance of Assembly meeting purposes.
Signage. The chair shall authorize signage posted at Assembly meetings, related to the Assembly meeting. Safety rules. The chair may adopt rules to promote the safety of members and attendees of assembly meetings.
Dilatory motions, points of order, and requests for information. The chair shall rule out of order motions, points of order, and requests for information that are dilatory. Non-germane requests for information. The chair shall rule that a request for information is out of order if it is not germane to the pending motion or public hearing.
Recess. The chair may temporarily recess a meeting for convenience, to restore order, or to resolve a technical issue. Committee assignments. The chair shall appoint assembly members to subcommittees of the assembly, and appoint a member to chair, or members to co-chair, each subcommittee. Office assignments. The chair shall assign members office.
The Anchorage School Board on Monday night overrode Superintendent Deena Bishop and put the masks back on the students when they return Jan. 3. The mask mandate extends to Jan. 15, for now, but the board seems willing to extend it further.
The board received much public comment, both online, on the phone, and in person, by the time it met on Monday night. Most of the teachers who testified were in favor of the mask mandate, and most of the written comments also supported the mandate. A few parents opposed it.
Before school began in September, Superintendent Bishop made the decision to implement universal masking in all school buildings in the district. After overwhelming testimony against it, the board said the decision was up to the superintendent.
Last week, Bishop wrote a note to parents removing the mandate on Jan. 3.
On Monday night, the board took back the power from Bishop. Only School Board member Dave Donley voted against the extension of the mask mandate.
Testimony from Dimond High School English teacher Soren Wuerth, who said mask wearing is an “act of love” and “mental health protection” and characterizing the unmasked as “maskless mob,” was typical of what was presented by other teachers in oral testimony:
“This impulsive decision to lift the mask mandate is insanity.We are facing staffing shortages, holiday travel, and with the omicron [variant], unprecedented rates of viral transmission.Schools across the country are shutting down as Covid surges. In this context, a context that includes a mutating, rapidly spreading virus, giving up a fundamental protection is unacceptable.
Just Friday I had a student collapse in my roomwith another almost too sick to walk to the nurse, both exhibiting acute Covid symptoms. Multiple students have been out sick with unreported covid.
Not only do masks provide physical protection, but are a form of mental health protection. With renegade mask wearing in a school community where students don’t fully understand the virus transmission and omicron, the stress and anxiety on an already extremely stressful environment.Why this? Why now? Someone in an online forum echoed what I perceived to be the attitude of ASD leadership and its rationale for this decision: ‘Man Up’ is the attitude. Join the maskless mob.
The idea of voluntary masking is, of course, oxymoronic. A mask only works when others are masked.
Masks are proven to be one of the only measures to prevent transmission and this is why the CDC recommends all students pre-K through 12 continue to mask.
Moreover, as usual, it will be the poorest kids and large families who will be most harmed by this…
This declaration is short-sighted, reckless and ignores basic safety precautions, but worse, it puts lives at risk, the lives of teachers who have families and of children, and for what, for what?Political ambition?
We have a dichotomy. Either this is a unilateral decision — no teachers were certainly consulted. Or it is ignorant. Or it’s malicious. Elevating someone’s political image over the safety of our children is immoral.
You can’t pretend your way out of this pandemic. Now, school board, do what’s right and figure out a way to walk this back.Thank you for your time and remember, wearing a mask is an act of love.“
Assembly Seat 6, now occupied by Kameron Perez-Verdia for West Anchorage, has another candidate running — former Rep. Liz Vazquez.
A fundraiser-meet-and-greet is calendared for Wednesday, Dec. 22 from 6-8 pm at Round table Pizza, 800 E Dimond Blvd #208, Anchorage, AK 99515. The restaurant is in the Dimond Center.
Hosts include Larry Baker, Liz and Hugh Ashlock, Brian Hove, Frank and Jeanie McQueary, Mike Robbins, Steve and Olga Zelener, Steve Strait, Joan Priestley, M.D., Bern Davis, Matthew Fagnani, Stan and Candice English, Chris and Bud Duke, Loren Leman, and Win and Audrey Faulkner.
The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday will take public testimony and will vote on a rewrite of Title 28 of Municipal code, putting severe restrictions on election observers for the all-mail-in ballot counting process.
The Assembly’s radical left majority describes the changes as “housekeeping.”
Working in consort with Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones, the nine leftist members of the Assembly plan to significantly reduce the number of observers who can be in position to watch ballots being counted at the Municipality’s Election Center at 619 East Ship Creek Ave. They also have other requirements, such as not allowing election workers to answer the questions of observers, but to require all questions to be funneled through the Municipal Clerk.
Clerk Jones objected to several election observers from the Dave Bronson for Mayor campaign and got into disputes with several of them during the April election and May runoff election. Their presence visibly rattled her and she was recorded scolding and talking down to the Bronson observers on several occasions. Jones and her operation has never had such scrutiny as they had during the April-May election.
At the same time, Assemblyman Chris Constant was recorded delivering a lavish bouquet of flowers to Jones during the counting process. Constant was a top lieutenant of Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar campaign for mayor and, as a member of the Assembly, is one of Jones’ bosses. The Muni Clerk reports to the Assembly.
The new rules Jones has written will allow her to remove any observer by simply rewriting the election observer handbook on the spot. Observers will also be required to be signed up over three weeks in advance, which is a barrier to candidates who do not have support of unions. Unions are able to deploy people to campaign activities, while candidates without unions must rely on volunteers.
In addition, observers will be required to undergo training from Jones’ staff and will not be able to record what they are seeing using their phones or cameras.
Brice Wilbanks, who was the campaign manager of the Bronson campaign, called these the “Brice amendments,” because most of them appear a result of volunteer vigilance on behalf of the Bronson campaign. Another testifier during Dec. 14’s public hearing described the amendments to Title 28 as obvious “retaliation” against the Bronson campaign.
Others noted that the city is getting ready to have body cameras on police officers, and that the cameras installed in the counting rooms are at such a distance that it’s not easy to see what is going on in the Election Center.
The proposed restricting of observers comes at a time when many in America have doubts about the results of election results in the 2020 General Election.
“Many Republicans appear to have bought into Trump’s lies about nonexistent widespread fraud in an election he lost,” reported NPR in a November news story. “Seventy-two percent of whites with degrees said they had trust in elections, while less than half of non-college-educated whites said they did.” The NPR poll found that only 33 percent of Republicans trust that the 2024 elections will be fair.
The Assembly meets at 5 pm on the ground floor of the Loussac Library, 3600 Denali Street. Information about the meeting, including how to watch it live on YouTube, can be found at this link.
Public testimony will continue tonight on the revised rules. Supporting documents provided by the Assembly:
School Board President Margo Bellamy told a community council group that the board will probably settle on a new superintendent by April.
Bellamy told the South Addition Community Council that Leadership Anchorage is in charge of the search and interviews for those those apply to replace Superintendent Deena Bishop, who announced she is retiring at the end of June.
That means George Martinez, program contact for Leadership Anchorage, is in charge of the initial screening of superintendent candidates. The final decision rests with the elected board itself.
Martinez is one of the plaintiffs filing a lawsuit against the new political redistricting maps. He has run for mayor of Anchorage as late as 2021, and was prominent in the Occupy Wall Street movement and as a community organizer, rapper, and former candidate for U.S. Congress in New York. He moved to Anchorage in 2007 and worked as an assistant to Mayor Ethan Berkowitz for several years. He is the vice president of Communications and Community Engagement at Alaska Humanities Forum, where he leads the Leadership Anchorage initiative.
Bellamy described the process for hiring a new superintendent:
“We do anticipate to have the process completed by early March. We don’t really know when we will have a new person because once we get through, you know, the board has to make a final decision, and then we’ve got to do the negotiations for the contract but it will really be more like early April before we have a superintendent. It is ambitious but we believe we can make that happen. and we also believe we can give the community as much input as it wants to have in the process. We have Leadership Anchorage is doing the canvassing and the interviewing, and the data collection externally, and then we have a third-party search firm that will be helping us with the internal component of the search process,” she told the community council.
It is unclear who besides Martinez in Leadership Anchorage is going to be part of the interviewing, canvassing, and data collection portion of the superintendent search. The current class of Leadership Anchorage is comprised of:
April Eide Aurora Agee Brennon Land Camilla Hussein-Scott Carmen Wenger Nyabony Gat Fadwa Edais Heather Barbour Jasmine Carter Joni Earp Spiess Kaila Pfister Kevin McGee Kima Hamilton Kyle Stevens Loreen Anderson Megan Malcolm Molly Cornish Nyabony Gat Traci Bunkers Weston Eiler
At the Anchorage School Board meeting on Monday, a revised school board policy is set to be voted on that may continue to blunt the ability of any board member to criticize the actions of the board.
The rule, BB 9010, states that before a vote, a board member may present whatever evidence they may feel important to the matter at hand. But not after a vote.
“The School Board shall fully consider the implications and relevancy of all information so presented. All opinions, reactions and positions shall be openly discussed, so that each member may understand all aspects of the issue before the School board makes its decision. Any School Board member who may wish to criticize or oppose any specific School Board action should do so during the School Board meeting,” the rule explains.
Once a decision has been made, the school board members are not allowed to “misrepresent” that decision to the public.
“When School Board members express their opinions outside of the School Board meeting, it is their responsibility to respect the democratic nature of School Board decision-making and always identify personal viewpoints as such,” the rule reads.
“Public statements in the name of the School Board shall be issued by the School Board president or, if appropriate, by the Superintendent or designee at the direction of the School Board president,” it says.
The proposed rule is better than what now exists, which says board members must “abide” by whatever decision the board votes on. The word “abide” is hard to define and is a certain abridgment of a board member’s First Amendment rights, although the new description of “misrepresent” also may be constitutionally weak, if a board president rules with a heavy hand.
Dave Donley, the conservative member of the school board, has been trying to improve this section of the board’s governing rules, because he disagrees with so much of what the board passes.
A second rule change will allow the Anchorage School District superintendent to act as an ex officio member of the board, with the ability to “make incidental motions and speak to matters under consideration during Board deliberations.” The rule change would not allow the superintendent to vote, however.
The Anchorage School Board meets Monday in executive session at 4 pm, and in regular open session at 6 pm. The issue of the superintendent of schools removing the mask mandate when children return to campus in January may come up as a last-minute item at the regular meeting.
The board has received over 50 email public comments, with many of them asking the board to overrule the superintendent in her decision to make masks optional across the district.
Sample of the public comments received include these chosen at random:
“My issue with the removal of the mandatory masking policy in our schools is the process by which it occurred. The super-authority granted to the superintendent to make these sorts of changes without school board input was created so that in the case of an emergency immediate action could be taken. No such emergency existed on Thursday, December 16. Covid-19 circumstances did not suddenly require unilateral action from the superintendent; Dr. Bishop should have briefed the school board of her proposed change, sought feedback, and allowed discussion.
I hope that whoever replaces our current superintendent is more respectful of the board, and that she or he will not abuse the power of the office to achieve an agenda that may or may not be in the best interest of our students. – Andrew Gray
My children do not need masks. They have more complications with wearing them such as bloody noses and asthma. They also have already had Covid and have immunity. It is a parents job to deem what is medically necessary for their children not the school board.
You are not to deem what is medically necessary for people’s children, only parents have the right for that. My kids have had Covid and have immunity. Masks are causing more harm to my children such as giving them constant bloody noses, headaches and asthma. I will pull them from school to place in private school as will many other parents and the ASD will lose even more funding. – Katherine Lucier
From direct observation of young children in my position leading nature hikes, the children are not bothered by wearing face masks. Many seem to prefer keeping them on even walking outside. Please keep in mind that many children are not vaccinated, and even if they are, they can carry the virus. Our incredible hard working school staff and teachers do not deserve to have the well being of themselves and their families compromised. Covid rates may be temporarily dipping, but the confusion of switching policies and the ongoing mutations of the virus make the action of unmasking in schools dangerous at best. With respect for the Superintendent, please consider overriding her dictate. – Sue May
It makes no sense to stop mandatory masking in schools for the spring semester- our health system is still trying to recover and masks have been shown to allow the spread of COVID19. Omicron is sweeping the nation, and with much higher infection rates we could see a significant uptick in cases. Lifting this policy now, only to reinstate it after we’re in a new world of hurt is very shortsided and not evidence based. Our schools have thousands of students and hundreds of teachers, the effect on the wider community is massive. Please continue to require masking in our schools. – Laura Herman
With rates of COVID doubling weekly in the Lower 48, schools closing, states enacting mask mandates and multiple hospitals reaching max capacity, now is NOT the time to end the mask mandate in our schools. Anchorage hospitals went on crisis care mode already – and that was before omicron.
Our three kids think it is SO much better than returning to online schooling. Students and staff are used to it now.
Please reverse Bishop’s poorly timed decision and keep masking in our schools, for all our sakes. – Kristiann Maclean
I am writing as a concerned Anchorage parent of two elementary school students in ASD and a community member. I was distressed to read the December 15 communication about the Superintendent’s desired transition to “parent-informed masking.” We should leave the public health decisions to public health professionals. For the younger students in our district, vaccination rates are very low (14%); masks are a proven way to minimize virus spread. Without masks, spread will be a problem and we will be back to closing classrooms and schools which is very disruptive to learning and family work schedules.
Students are already used to mandatory masking. I volunteer in my daughter’s kindergarten classroom and have been impressed with the normalcy of masking even among our youngest students. Making a rule that is not for everyone will be confusing for young children, and will put our vulnerable children and households at risk. Our kids have an immunosuppressed father and it feels much more stressful and risky to send them into school without masks.
The timing of this possible shift is also very distressing. Many families travel for holidays – bringing everyone back together again without masking is not appropriate or safe. The omicron variant is causing countries, universities, schools to fully close down. Removing our mask mandate at this time is very shortsighted and will have deadly impacts on our community. It is so distressing to so many of us in our community that these basic decisions about public health have become so politicized and so much misinformation is being spread. The guidance from health professionals is clear. Masks are an effective and easy tool to help control the spread of this deadly virus. Please protect our children, and our vulnerable family members, and all of us by keeping this mask mandate for our schools until such time as our rates and transmission is *low* (<5 / 100,000).
Thank you very much for your service and leadership. – Courtney Carothers, Parent of two elementary-aged students in ASD
As an ASD teacher assistant substitute working with an unvaccinated population in a pre-K classroom, I will no longer feel safe even though I am vaccinated. Pre-K students are very good at wearing masks, but don’t understand social distance. All these students will be more at risk if they contract covid. Also, as an effective assistant, I need to be close to them. Helping them open objects during lunch, getting outdoor gear on and off, working in small learning groups…we are always in close proximity. Mask wearing makes me feeler safer. With no mask mandate, I will have to step back from subbing. – Nancy Dunleavy
I am a mother with 4 children, 3 of which are enrolled in ASD. My older two have enjoyed a return to normal school year in middle and high school. We kept them home all of last year. My 3rd grader has recently been fully vaccinated and will return to school in January after having been home all first semester. My youngest child is not eligible for a vaccination and as a family we make great efforts and sacrifices to protect her from the virus.
The decision to make masks optional at this point does not make any sense whatsoever. Masks have been successful at keeping infections at bay in our schools. New variants are continuing to bludgeon our country and no one really knows what things will look like in two weeks, in a month, in two months. Why this decision was made this preemptively seems careless and ill advised.
Saying parents can make decisions on mask wearing for their child(ren) is ridiculous. Mask wearing is most effective if everyone wears a mask- and you all full well know this. Children will feel singled out and different if they are asked to mask and their own teachers or administrators aren’t even masking up, let alone their peers.
The community is tired of covid, yes. If numbers rise and more of our community falls ill and needs medical care then this will fall to the already overtaxed medical community to deal with. The school district should NOT contribute to this hardship in any way. Please make masking required of all staff, teachers and students in all ASD buildings. Thank you for your time, – Jolene Becke
I am writing in to vote for mask choice. This has gone on long enough. I am a kindergarten TA and see first hand how this is harming our children. I have three teenagers in the school district, and see the effects on those students as well. Vaccines are available for everyone who is in the system. Move on, please. – Monica Tovsen
Thanks to the school board and superintendent for calmly and intelligently working hard keeping our students safe during this pandemic.
Please keep doing the smart and safe thing by continuing the indoor mask policy that has been working so well. The vast majority our kids, including my own third grade son, think of indoor masking as an acceptable and reasonable way to protect themselves and others.
Please don’t take away that protection now as we enter the next phase of this pandemic with new and unknown threats related to the omicron variant.
Thank you again for all you do. The science-driven decisions you have made on behalf of our students and community have made this school year safer and more stable for all of Anchorage.
Keep up the good work by continuing to follow the science and public health recommendations. – Jimael Johnson Mother of current ASD student
School board members: Thank you for your time and for hearing my concerns. I strongly disagree with the operational guideline from Dr. Deena Bishop that would make masks optional in ASD schoolsbeginning January 3, 2022. Why? Who benefits from this? Whose needs are being met here? Does this decision prioritize the best outcomes for all children and our community?
Health experts report a likely approaching wave of cases due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Furthermore, many families will be returning from travel after the holidays and/or will have been engaging with families and friends locally. I’ve heard that cases did not rise after Thanksgiving break, and this was cited as a reason to make masks optional. But masks were STILL REQUIRED in ASD buildings after Thanksgiving which may be one reason cases didn’t rise. Also, that break is shorter. Using that data for the Winter Break situation is flawed.
I am a parent of two children in ASD schools – a kindergartener and a second grader, the latter has asthma. Our family has been very COVID-cautious, because of my son’s asthma and because we have an infant at home. This decision for mask-optional gives us two terrible options: go to school where some people will be unmasked (even though my kids will mask, it isn’t very effective if others are not) or stay at home and transition to ASD virtual. My kids stayed virtual all last year (to protect our newborn) and were so happy to go back to school. I will have to make a decision to prioritize either my children’s physical health or their mental health. Why must we choose?
This timing is terrible. The proximity to Winter Break is poor, as I mentioned earlier. If we must change policy, why not give it two weeks to allow any travel cases to be identified, and then implement mask optional right after Martin Luther King, Junior day? Wouldn’t that be wise?
Also, for any family who wishes to vaccinate their 5-11-year-olds against COVID but have not yet done so for any reason, two weeks notice is not enough time for them to receive a full cycle of the vaccine and build adequate immunity. Why the rush? Why so little notice? Why such terrible timing, when we should be taking a break instead of scrambling to decide what to do for next semester?
Recently, I was speaking to an elder in a predominately Inupiat village in Northwest Alaska. (I am not using his name as he did not give express permission.) His village has been extremely careful and has had very few cases and none serious. When I remarked on this, he explained how the most important priority for them was to protect and care for the elders and the children. They’ve been so careful that even vaccinated people will often quarantine after travel, at an inconvenience to themselves.
Listen to your elders. Put the needs of children first, not political pressures or perceived inconvenience. Do the right thing. Alter this policy to give more time for cases to appear after break and for more children to get vaccinated, or better yet, keep the current mandate in place for third quarter and re-visit for fourth.
With gratitude and faith in your good sense and care for others, – The Rev. Lisa Smith Fiegel (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Denali Montessori mom and PTSA board member
Please support Superintendent Bishop in allowing parent-informed masking when we return to school in January.
Transmission numbers in Anchorage are trending down and the Municipality of Anchorage’s (MOA) emergency order has been lifted. COVID-19 testing now shows a downward trend and cases in schools have remained low as well.
The COVID-19 vaccine has been readily available to all school-aged children for several months now, and the booster is available for those 16 and older.
Summer school was a success when masking was not required, and I know it will be a success for the rest of the school year.
Thank you for doing what is best for our children by allowing masking to be a choice! – Rachelle Pessetto
The Superintendent’s decision to make masks optional after winter break appears to be short sighted. European nations and US states on the east coast are seeing rapid growth in covid cases due to Omicron. We know that hospitalizations and deaths lag behind infections. Anchorage and Alaska just recently had record cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from the Delta variant. We finally are trending downward in numbers largely due to increase in community mask use and an influx of over 400 health professionals to deliver care at our hospitals. I don’t understand how Dr. Bishop feels we are suddenly in the clear on this pandemic and can ditch masks in schools. Information available does not support it. We should continue to be proactive to keep our kids in school, not reactive and more disruptive to their learning environment. My kids don’t mind the masks, they want to be in school. We have heard of the difficulties finding enough bus drivers and substitute teachers. I have to wonder how ASD plans to keep in person class going when teachers and staff are unable to attend in person due to covid infections and there’s no backup personnel. I hope the school board will push back on this short sighted plan for optional masking. We can see the next wave coming if we just look past our feet. Thank you! – Alecia Rathlin
The school board meets at the Anchorage School District Education Center, 5530 E Northern Lights Blvd Anchorage, and it has allowed for limited seating due to its rule relating to Covid mitigation. The meeting can be watched, with great limitations, at the board’s YouTube channel, ASD-TV at https://www.youtube.com/user/AnchorageSD
In 1969, when Alaskans realized how much oil was in Prudhoe Bay, people quickly understood the implications. A formerly cash starved state was going to get rich. The questions were how quickly, how rich, and what should be done with all that money?
When Alaska Natives demanded a settlement of their land claims, it was apparent this issue needed to be resolved before any pipeline could be built. The landmark legislation that resulted, the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act of 1971, cleared the way.
Then the oil crisis of 1973 made the enormous cost of a pipeline economically feasible. Construction began in 1974, and by the summer of 1977 the oil began to flow. By 1978 1.2 million barrels a day were arriving in Valdez, gradually reaching a peak in 1988 of 2 million barrels a day. The State of Alaska was poor no more.
The still unanswered question was: What to do with all the money? As a result, the most important election in Alaska’s history was the 1978 Republican gubernatorial primary. Whoever won would become governor, with the power to control the expenditure of the windfall.
The candidates were incumbent Gov. Jay Hammond, the man most responsible for creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund; former Gov. and Secretary of the Interior Wally Hickel; and conservative stalwart Tom Fink, Speaker of the House.
Neither Hickel or Fink had much use for the Permanent Fund. They both believed that Permanent Fund money should be spent on major infrastructure improvements, like the Rampart Dam. So this election determined the fate of the Fund. It would either thrive, under Hammond, or be discarded in favor of huge mega-projects. Bridges across the Turnagain Arm and the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet were seriously considered. Moving the state capital from Juneau to Wasilla was financially feasible. Money was no object.
Hickel was one of the richest men in the state, while Hammond and Fink had modest means, and relied on small-dollar donations. All the business interests in the state, along with organized labor, were behind Hickel, but they were unable to overwhelm Hammond with money. In 1978 Alaska had a very strict campaign finance laws, and Hickel’s wealthy supporters were of limited use to him. This proved critical, since Hammond only beat him by 98 votes.
That law was later ruled unconstitutional, and recent Supreme Court decisions have made effective campaign finance laws unobtainable. Big money from outside, dark money, from people like George Soros, will be pouring into next year’s Alaska Senate election. Dark money groups get a bigger bang for their buck in small states like Alaska. Here, a few million dollars can make a difference. In large states, they have to spend a lot more to have an effect. And the votes of senators from Alaska count just much as the ones from California.
Alaska voters have repeatedly voted for campaign finance reform, most recently in 2020, for Prop. 2. We’d vote for it again, if we could, but court decisions like Thompson v. Hebdon prevent any such reform from taking place. Congress will never clean up this mess. It’s dysfunctional, mired in extreme partisanship, and thoroughly corrupted by big money donors.
One group of American patriots, Wolf-PAC, is trying to do something about this corruption, and the Alaska Legislature in 2022 will have the opportunity to participate in the solution they propose. It can pass a resolution calling for an Amendment Convention limited solely to the subject of campaign finance for the purpose of proposing an amendment to the United States Constitution.
Under the terms of Article V of the Constitution, if 34 state legislatures pass such resolutions, Congress is required to call the convention for this limited purpose. When it meets, Republican and Democrat delegates will work to forge a compromise solution acceptable to both parties. A partisan proposal would be pointless, since it could never be ratified by the required 38 states.
Campaign finance reform can work, as shown by its effect in Alaska in 1978. We wouldn’t have a Permanent Fund without it. The United States Congress is dysfunctional, paralyzed by the money of special interests. The Alaska legislature can be part of the solution.
In 1983, as a freshman State Senator, Fritz Pettyjohn voted for an Article V resolution calling for a fiscal reform Amendment Convention.
