AKLEG Day 84: 'The absence of a compelling reason.'
A long litany of unanswered questions hasn’t stopped Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his Republicans from pushing to enact right-wing changes to education policy in Alaska, and that didn’t change on Monday.
It’s Monday, Alaska.
In this edition: The bill House Republicans are banking on as a do-over for the bipartisan education bill they killed last month advanced out of the House Education Committee today in a particularly sub-par meeting, leaving a long list of questions about the policies and their impact on local schools unanswered.
Current mood: 😤
‘The absence of a compelling reason.’
A litany of unanswered questions hasn’t stopped Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his Republicans from pushing to enact right-wing changes to education policy in Alaska, and that didn’t change on Monday when the House Education Committee pulled a bait-and-switch on the latest version of the education bill backed by House Republicans as a replacement for the one they helped kill last month.
House Bill 392 had been scheduled for a pair of hearings this week, including publicly noticed opportunities for Alaskans to weigh in on the legislation, but a petulant-even-by-her-standards Eagle River Republican Rep. Jamie Allard had different plans.
“I have the clear intention of moving this bill out of committee,” she said, outlining a plan to move the new version, take amendments and advance the bill. “We will move it off this committee today. If we have time for additional public testimony, we could do that. I’ve already taken public testimony. I’ve already closed public testimony.”
A few legislators openly questioned the decision, with a particularly head-turning exchange with Juneau Democratic Rep. Andi Story that hinted some words had been exchanged ahead of the meeting. Sitka independent Rep. Rebecca Himschoot noted that she had expected amendments to be taken up on Wednesday and planned to meet with fellow legislators before then. But Allard pushed ahead with the new version — which reads essentially like Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s wishlist of far-right education policies — as several people who appeared to have planned to testify on the bill walked out of the hearing room.
As an overview, the bill still calls for the $680 increase to the base student allocation, which falls well short of what’s needed to make districts whole after years of rampant inflation and status quo funding. However, several key Republicans in the House have conceded that the figure is unlikely to survive the governor’s line-item budget veto. None have said what he would approve.
Instead, many of the changes are focused on right-wing priorities, the biggest of which is an overhaul of how public charter schools are created.
The latest version of the bill would grant the Board of Education, wholly appointed by the governor, the authority to impose new public charter school programs on local districts. The provision was left out of the original education bill and has been called a non-starter in the Senate. Many legislators and education advocates have warned that the plan lays the groundwork for a long-time priority of Dunleavy and several members of the Board of Education: Spending public dollars on private and religious education. Alaska Association of School Boards Executive Director Lon Garrison wrote recently that the changes would “reduce the power of local authorities and provide opportunities for private and religious schools to access public funds.”
It also calls for a substantial increase in funding for public homeschool students, though a legislative aide said it would be up to school districts to decide how to use the money. Rather than targeted funding for K-3 students who need help reading, as was proposed in the past bill with a $500 per student bump to districts, it would send districts $130 for each K-3 student.
The one program not contained in the bill is a controversial teacher bonus program, which would have cost about $180 million over three years if implemented, according to Dunleavy’s ask. It would have paid between $5,0000 and $15,0000 to complete a year of teaching in Alaska based on location, with teachers in remote communities earning more. The governor and his administration pitched it as an opportunity to study whether increased teacher compensation made a difference in recruitment and retention. The study has been criticized as a poor use of the state’s dollars when a straightforward increase in school funding or a reinstatement of public pensions are also options to address the revolving door of teachers.
The House minority members offered more than a dozen amendments, including a larger BSA increase, inflation-proofing for the BSA, increased reporting requirements around charter school waitlists and homeschool spending, and several changes that would have removed or softened the charter school provisions entirely. In most cases, legislators said they were trying to address the holes in a bill that they said had not been adequately justified (this is just the second hearing on this bill).
“I feel like we haven’t been informed to make a policy change of that scope. When asking about the waitlists, we haven’t been able to get accurate numbers,” Rep. Himschoot said of the charter school changes, noting state officials have been unable to answer basic questions about charter schools. “In the absence of a compelling reason to change what we’re doing, since our charter schools are particularly successful, it feels like we’re doing what we need to be doing and should change it.”
House Republicans weren’t interested in answering those questions. All but one amendment was rejected on a 3-4 vote. The only accepted change calls for local districts to have an opportunity to weigh in on state-sanctioned charter programs. GOP Reps. Allard, Justin Ruffridge, Mike Prax, and Tom McKay voted against every measure. House Minority Reps. Himschoot and Andi Story were joined by House Majority Democratic Rep. CJ McCormick to support the changes.
It was clear that Rep. Allard had little patience — or respect — for her fellow legislators, whom she misnamed at one point. At several points, Rep. Allard demanded to know how the legislators planned to pay for their proposed changes.
“Are you looking at taking that increase from the PFD?”
It’s also worth pointing out that Rep Allard didn’t ever say where the more than $40 million in increased homeschool funding in her version of the bill would come from. At one point, Rep. McCormick noted that budgetary questions should be left to the House Finance Committee and that the Education Committee’s domain should be education policy, a reminder Rep. Allard didn’t seem to appreciate.
While Republicans have said much about their support for public schools since they voted to uphold Gov. Dunleavy’s veto of the bipartisan education bill, several GOP legislators on the committee questioned the importance of increasing education funding. North Pole Republican Rep. Mike Prax acknowledged the constitutional duty to “maintain” schools but said it can’t mean schools get everything they want.
Anchorage Republican Rep. Tom McKay added that “it’s highly debatable” whether schools actually have a funding issue in the first place.
Rep. CJ McCormick, D-Bethel, eventually shot back, noting that many children in Alaska attend classes in schools with black mold and without working toilets.
“If we are not funding our schools with consideration for inflation, how are we adequately funding them?” he said. “Pretty simple question, but I think if we are not adjusting our formula with inflation, then we are failing to provide our constitutional obligation, which is to adequately fund schools.”
Only after the committee had worked through all the amendments did Rep. Allard open up public testimony for the handful of people who stayed through the meeting. Those who were still around testified in favor of the changes that had already been rejected, with some saying the hearing lacked transparency and that it was hard to follow what was happening because meeting documents were not being uploaded on time. At one point, Rep. Allard encouraged people to write in with their public testimony despite the fact she already planned to hand the bill off.
The operation of the House Education Committee has been an issue throughout the legislative session. The committee failed to meet for three weeks due to infighting between co-chair Reps. Allard and Ruffridge. Juneau School Board member Will Muldoon called out that ineptitude during his comments to the committee.
“It’s sad that a committee that couldn’t meet for three weeks is more dysfunctional when they finally do meet,” he said. “I hope you guys take a moment to reflect on that and encourage you all to do better.”
The legislation now heads to the House Finance Committee for consideration.
Stay tuned.