Sen. Loki Tobin, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, may have worn out her welcome in her own caucus of Democrats when she rose to speak agains the confirmation of Kristine Resler to the University of Alaska Board of Regents.
At issue for Tobin was the Regents’ decision earlier this year to comply with the executive order from President Donald Trump, which said any school that continues to push the “diversity-equity-inclusion” agenda of bias and discrimination would lose federal funding.
“After listening to her testimony in Senate Education,” Tobin said, “the entire UA community was caught off-guard about this motion. There is real fear happening amongst our students, our faculty, our staff, our alumni, the diverse peoples of Alaska right now. And instead of ameliorating that fear with transparency and with public discourse, Ms. Resler chose to affirm the motion.”
Tobin went on to personalize it and say that Resler would erase people like her.
“When she was asked in the Senate Education Committee if she would defend the independent integrity of our state’s institutions of higher learning, she said she would do nothing different in the future. Mr. President, I cannot in good conscience vote for somebody who would be willing to violate the public trust so blatantly and willing to erase people like me from the university.”
It was clearly playing the race card. Ironically what she was calling for would jeopardize the higher education funding of the university system, which is a curious move for an “education advocate” like Tobin.
But for the quick action of the Board of Regents, the university might have millions of dollars less than it has today.
Resler’s nomination passed, with several Democrats, including hard-left Rep. Zack Fields, voting in the affirmative. The vote was 40-19, with Rep. Neal Foster not voting.
