A group of Democrats in the Alaska House of Representatives has asked Speaker Cathy Tilton to conduct a survey among the members of the House to determine if there is an appetite for a special session that the Legislature would call itself into in order to override some or all of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes.
The letter to Speaker Tilton was signed by Reps. Calvin Schrage, Dan Ortiz, Jennie Armstrong, Andrew Gray, Cliff Groh, Zack Fields, Andi Story, Geneva Mina, Donna Mears, Ashley Carrick, Alyse Galvin, Sara Hannan, Louise Stutes, Andy Josephson, Maxine Dilbert, and Rebecca Himschoot.
Although not all are registered Democrats, it’s widely understood that those with an “undeclared” or “nonpartisan” labels are using them for convenience and vote confusion in their districts.
Of the 16 who signs the letter, nine are freshmen, having served for just one term in office. Many of those nine have never held any type of elected office before.
The old-timers who signed the letter — Andy Josephson, Louise Stutes, and Dan Ortiz — have been in office for several years and understand what they are doing: The Democrat minority is making political theater, all the while knowing the votes are not there.
Speaker Tilton said she was puzzled over the handwringing because the minority refused to give the House majority a three-quarter vote to fund the biggie-sized education bonus out of the Constitutional Budget Reserve, and didn’t give the House majority the vote to allow an extended session, so the budget could be hammered out in the compromises that are usually made in a conference committee. The extended session could have give lawmakers time to handle the problem created by the Senate Majority, which would not cooperate at the end of session.
The Democrats are upset because Gov. Dunleavy scaled back the additional spending that the was awarded to education for the coming year.
Rather than an additional $175 million for education, on top of the regular spending, Dunleavy left in place an $87 million addition boost for the fiscal year, which begins July 1.
But the Legislature’s budget and governor also awarded $3 million for the Alaska Reads Act, which is a program that is meant to help schools increase reading skills in Alaska students, which have dropped in recent years to second-worst in the nation, after New Mexico, according to The Nation’s Report Card.
In addition to the Alaska Reads Act funding, there is lots of extra education money in the budget for FY2023:
- $299 million for school bond debt reimbursement, helping local governments and school districts with the cost of school construction
- $117 million for Rural Education Attendance Area funds, ensuring rural Alaskan students have safe schools in which to learn
- $40 million in funding to the Major Maintenance Fund, clearing large, deferred projects on Alaskan school buildings
In FY2024:
- $67.2 million for school bond debt reimbursement
- $27.9 million for Rural Education Attendance Area funds
- $19.6 million for School Major Maintenance
In the Senate, Sen. Gary Stevens has let it be known he doesn’t think there is the will to try to get a veto override of the $87 million reduction in the expansion of the spending.
JUST SAY NO, TAKE NO ACTION, DO NOTHING.
you have already harmed us enough this session, stop already!
We the people spoke loud n clear whe we elected what we thought were conservatives.
Stop giving in as you have been proving you have no spine caving as you already did to the destructive democrat party. Stop.
Enough.
Politics is performance art.
Just say no. State governmint is bloated. We need it to be at 1988 size and no bigger. It is all the people can afford. Please cut it back any way you can. Thanks.
They will want to ca$h in on the per diem bonus AND fund their education cronies’ spending habit
The schools are loosing students and they want more money. This is the education your kids are getting. They can’t do math or balance a brick on the ground. No more money for a loosing government failure. We want vouchers and then we will see how education of our future goes up and not down as usual.
Please speak about your own kids and not mine. I taught my students fractions in shop class so they could read a tape measure.
Well why are math scores so low and dropping every year? Good for you teaching fractions. Most kids today can’t spell fraction. Who taught math if you were a shop teacher? I liked shop classes but I learned math in math class.
Math is racist. Didn’t see the memo?
According to the district, this 50% veto reduction in the already legislature approved funding will lead to hundreds of layoffs in education staff. The choice is a special session veto override, or increase the unemployment rate and leave the state without the ability to effectively educate our kids.
They’ll start with the non filled positions first to be layed off. Don’t worry. It’ll be alright. Besides there are other employments hiring including the state government whom can’t hire fast enough expediting the hiring approval process as one new hire had to wait two weeks before she got another job cause she couldn’t wait longer.
The state can’t effectively teach anything. You can continue to throw money down the rat hole as government keeps trying but the education is in the toilet. We need a different direction or your state educated kids will not be ready for the real world.
95.6% of Alaskans are high school educated or higher. Home schooling accounts for 10% of enrolled students, but only 50% of homeschooling student attain a high school level in Alaska (35% less than public students). Are you saying more than 90% of Alaskans aren’t ready for the real world? Not a lot of Alaskans would take kindly to you telling them your 90% certain they don’t understand how to function in the “real world.” Personally, I give Alaskans more credit than most when it comes to worldly experience.
I agree…Only because most of Alaskans have come from military homes and had a better educational experience living abroad/living all over the many places in the US.
Even with the vetoes this is the largest one time increase in the BSA ever. Please do not tell me you believe the Adminsitrations threats to lay off teachers. Maybe they should take cuts to their $157,000 dollar salaries? Maybe they should lay off non-teachers. Mabye they should encourage homeschooling by paying parents more than a fraction of what they get for the homeschool kids. The “choice” should never be a special session. The choice should actually be close the schools with under-enrollment. Close that big behomouth of a building on Boniface and Benson. With falling enrollment we do not need a district staff as huge as Carol Cuomo built it. Lets start spending money on educating kids instead of employing superflous people.
Sure you could increase home-school funding allotments, and be more like Illinois or Minnesota. You may find that you enjoy Alaska’s lowest individual tax burden in the nation more though, as Illinois and Minnesota rank 9th and 8th highest for individual tax burdens respectively in order to fund these systems. They spend a lot more of their local and state taxes towards public education too, but hey, they score higher on national tests. Looks like more education funding does correlate with higher performance. You’re onto something.
Sorry but your propaganda does not wash. You are comparing apples to oranges. Individual tax rates have nothing to do with educational outcome, especially since neither Illinois nor Minnesota have a large pool of oil revenue to draw from. Alaska spent according to the census bureau (FY2019 numbers updated 10/21) $18000 per student per year, Illinois $16000 and Minnesota about $13000. More money does not correlate with better outcomes. Instead less fund will streamline and focus on what is important instead of all those fluffy/squishy side shows that take up considerable amount of productive real teaching time.
You’re conflating the Alaska spending with Federal dollars alongside the state and local dollars with the 18000 figure. Alaska has the most federal funding allotment towards education. I talk about spending that effects Alaskans (state and local tax dollars only), and Alaskan student outcomes (Alaskan students). You claim apples to oranges. Then you talk about spending that comes from out of state (federal) mixed in instead of purely Alaskan spending and talk about Alaskan student outcomes. Seems like apples to oranges may be your forte.
Hang on there, you said:
“Looks like more education funding does correlate with higher performance.”
Since Alaska does NOT have a state income tax, your “individual tax” reference implies federal taxes and in the final analysis where those funds come from is immaterial for the purpose of your claim, as stated above. Since you insist that higher spending gets better outcomes and state that we receive the highest federal dollars,(and overall spend more than Illinois or Minnesota) our kids should score at the top of the chart, yet our outcomes are terrible and we rank 49th or 50th. Can’t have it both ways.
I agree with you !!!
The state can’t educate kids effectively. Or they refuse to.
These cuts are not nearly enough. Most school systems are profoundly too heavy and are fatter than Wimpy.
By making heavy cuts it forces big education’s hand in one of two directions. Keep the best teachers and toss away the useless crap (roughly 80%), or keep the useless crap and stop pretending to teach.
If something is broken you fix it, you don’t throw a fit and throw it away. Your kid won’t get better test scores if you kick 80% of teachers out of the field. That doesn’t make any sense.
Oh yes you can fire the incompetent employees after professional reviews, personal goals , and quotas not being met. Which guest accommodation would you prefer? A hotel with friendly desk, shuttle, dining crew with very clean rooms, or a hotel keeping their cranky employees and untidy housekeepers but they have a nice personality and smile at you despite they don’t usually do a good job performing their job duties. I think et tu would be okay with staff just doing little to keep their jobs. Hahaha. You know those who work for education are lucky they have the job they got, I doubt their ability to do anything else. They can’t even teach for 12 months 5 days a week with no service, no spring and winter breaks. Hahahaha
One doesn’t fix cancer. One removes it.
Sounds a lot like treating brain cancer by removing the whole brain.
Throw out 80% of the high salaried paper-pushing administrators, counselors etc., eliminate the job-justifying special courses established by said administrators… and voila, more money for actual teaching and hard sciences, where they actually impart useful knowledge instead of all this “social-emotional learning” nonsense.
et_tu_Xanthippe, Look genius, the School Districts have already proved their inability to educate children despite vast sums of Ca$h having been tossed their way. How pray tell will a Special Session that ostensibly will cough up even more Ca$h into the coffers of bloated School Districts change anything except provide more Ca$h into the pockets of the Democrat party by way of the NEA?
And what did a real Genius once say about the definition of Insanity? Something about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Go stuff it!
Alaskans have the lowest individual tax burden in the nation; 17% less then the second lowest burden (Delaware). Less than 5% of local and state tax funding goes towards education funding. The myth of a bloated education budget is a lie designed to anger the uneducated and creates a crab bucket mentality. Talk to teachers, talk to school resource managers, talk to education administration. The budget myth relies on people who don’t know/interact with anyone in education.
You are a broken record, repeating an uneducated claim. In Alaska per our state constitution the state is responsible for education funding and pays the majority of all costs, mostly from funds obtain via oil and other tax revenues. Incorporated areas like Anchorage contribute with their property taxes. Property taxes can not be considered individual taxes, as it applies to businesses as well. The amount spent each year on education could give each child a fabulous education IF the money followed the child. The state would pay directly to the schools of their choice, including private schools or home school groups. Private schools can do a better job with about half of the almost $20000/student (AK policy forum 2020 numbers) the state spent.
Just out of curiosity what would you consider a reasonable budget per student?
WE ARE DONE!!!! ABSOLUTELY NO MORE SPECIAL SESSIONS!!! The Assembly couldn’t work their way out of a paper bag!!! THEY ARE WORTHLESS!!!
Uhm J Kirk while I get your frustration, I need to point out that in this tiny instance the assembly actually has nothing to do with it. This is the STATE Legislature…you know those guys, who hide in Juneau, away from the people and practice their evil laughs, while appropriating more money for their pet projects….and then complain that there just isn’t enough money for what the people need or are entitled to by statute.
It’s a shared responsibility/
problem. The state feeds the pigs, but the local powers dictate much of how the feed is distributed.
Can’t solve one without dealing with the other.
True, but the article deals with some house legislators throwing a hissy fit, because their pet project pay-off got cut in half. The muni may lobby, but overriding the veto is all on the state legislature.
Education funding will be front and center in the next election. District 24 will be up for grabs.
I doubt it Frank.
Any reason why you are picking on District 24 in particular?? What did Dan Saddler do to get on your bad side??
They should all take a bush flight.
I was required to hire high school students to work in the shop and only two out of ten could read a tape measure. They usually got tired of pushing a broom and they would quit because they werent capable of learning shop skills without basic math and science skills. Great kids but I sure felt sorry for them knowing what they would miss out on.
They came from the school district that spends more per student than any district in the state however has the lowest scores and achievement levels as well as the highest dropout rate. It takes much more than money to educate successfully.
“I was required to hire high school students to work in the shop and only two out of ten could read a tape measure.”
Your mistake lay in not supplying those students with tape measures with little electronic screens attached over which they could hunch and stare. No little screen = ‘no comprendo’ for Generation Idiot.
What is needed is not more money, but better teaching techniques. Some lower 48 schools were caught showing LGBTQ+ videos in math class. It was actually students who complained. As long as the NEA is running things, nothing will change. Adding more money does nothing. Inspired teaching would work wonders, always has. Engage the students and show them how their acquired knowledge can be used. Make learning fun and watch the scores take off.
YES, Only when indoctrination is eliminated, ONLY then will educating will start. TOO much non-educational indoctrination and not enough Arithmetic, reading, spelling, English and the basics are being taught.
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