The Dunleavy administration still has few answers on education priorities

The House Education Committee held its first hearing on the Republican alternative to a bipartisan education bill that GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy successfully vetoed, but many questions remain unanswered.

The legislation, unusually sponsored by the House Resources Committee, is largely similar to Senate Bill 140 but includes provisions that Dunleavy cited when he vetoed it. That includes a change allowing the Board of Education to unilaterally approve new public charter school programs without input or oversight from the districts that would be chartered with operating them.

During the hearing, several legislators expressed their skepticism about the governor’s charter school demands. While the governor has advocated for expanding charter school access to improve education in Alaska, critics argue that his preferred changes fail to significantly broaden charter access, leaving crucial questions about funding, transportation, oversight and the impact on existing neighborhood schools unanswered.

“There’s a lot of information that is not available,” said Rep. Rebecca Himschoot during the hearing. “Let’s just drill down on the waitlist question. When we say there are families on the waitlists, are there at this time in the school year families still on waitlists? What is that number? How do I find it?”

Department of Education Commissioner Deena Bishop conceded that she didn’t possess concrete numbers on the charter school waitlists or the number of charter school applications that have been rejected. However, she speculated that the waitlist for charter schools in the Anchorage area could be as high as 2,000 students, a figure she based on her experience as the district’s superintendent.

Rep. Himschoot said she was concerned that the number was overinflated by families applying to multiple schools, a common practice given the waitlists.

“I don’t have that piece of information,” Bishop eventually admitted before reiterating that she believes school choice is popular.

According to application numbers provided by the Anchorage School District, the total number of applications for charter programs for the upcoming school year is 388 as of March 24. The application deadline was March 21. The numbers account for the total number of applicants, not individuals, which means that the number of kids on waitlists for charter schools is almost certainly lower than 388.

Public testimony from several education groups and even some charter school principals opposed the change that would give the governor wide and unchecked latitude to create new charter programs. Several said that the local input under the existing system is a critical piece of the system’s current success.

Some Anchor Point testifiers, however, testified in favor of the measure, citing the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s recent rejection of a charter application in the area. Several expressed animosity toward the school district, accusing it and teacher unions of blocking the charter. However, as other legislators have noted, the group was able to appeal the rejection to Dunleavy’s Department of Education, which also rejected the plan.

Skeptics of Dunleavy’s changes have noted that the rejection — which was largely centered around holes in the charter’s plan regarding its curriculum, funding and access to facilities — would have been addressed through the legislation the governor vetoed. Senate Bill 140 would have created a statewide charter school coordinator position to help families navigate the process of creating charters and would have provided additional funding that several school administrators have said would have benefitted charter programs.

Reading changes

Commissioner Bishop also raised concerns over provisions that would provide districts with additional funding for K-3 students who are struggling to meet reading benchmarks. The funding was included in the final version of Senate Bill 140 as part of a compromise between the House and Senate and is intended to support the Alaska Reads Act.

Bishop claimed that the provisions would incentivize districts to intentionally limit kids’ progress to get more funding, offering no evidence beyond the several decades she personally worked in education. She argued that instead, the money should be directed at schools with higher numbers of students from lower-income families.

She said it’s been proven that kids at these schools struggle with reading more than others.

“We do have evidence today, in our data, that demonstrates the greater amount of students who are in need of (individualized reading plans) and have reading deficiencies attend Title I schools,” she said. “They’re in higher poverty areas. It doesn’t mean that they can’t read. It doesn’t mean they won’t read. It just means that this is providing additional funds that may not be available in that area to really invest additional funds into students who may have grown up in an impoverished area.”

That suggestion didn’t sit well with everyone. During the public testimony portion of the hearing, Cody McCanna, the principal of Aurora Borealis Charter School in Kenai, said that kids from all walks of life could use the help.

“If you can’t read and you need reading help, it has nothing to do with your finances,” he said.

A new version of the legislation is apparently being prepared by House Education Committee co-chair Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Anchorage, and is expected to be rolled out at a future meeting.