The latest version of the education bill backed by House Republicans as a replacement for the one they helped kill last month advanced from the House Education Committee on Monday, just hours after it was introduced.
While House Bill 392 had been planned for a pair of hearings this week, with public testimony scheduled for both, House Education Committee chair Rep. Jamie Allard changed the plan at the last minute, catching the public and fellow legislators by surprise.
“I have the clear intention of moving this bill out of committee,” she said, outlining a plan to introduce 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 Sitka independent Rep. Rebecca Himschoot noting that she had expected amendments to be taken up on Wednesday and had planned on meeting with fellow legislators before then.
But Allard pushed ahead with the new bill, which largely mirrors Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s wishlist. Several people who appeared to have planned to testify on the bill left shortly after Allard reiterated her plan to skip past the public hearing.
The latest version of the bill would grant a board wholly appointed by the governor the authority to impose new public charter school programs on local districts, a provision that was left out of the original education bill and has been called a non-starter in the Senate. 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 a smaller increase of $130 for all K-3 students.
It also calls for a $680 increase to the base student allocation, a figure the governor has threatened to ignore with a line-item veto to the funding in the budget.
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. It was pitched by the governor and his administration as an opportunity to study whether increased teacher compensation made a difference in recruitment and retention.
More than a dozen amendments were offered by the House Minority members, which included 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 either removed or softened the charter school provisions.
“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 that the state has been woefully unable to answer even basic questions about charter school programs. “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.”
All but one amendment was rejected on a 3-4 vote. The only change that was accepted calls for local districts to have an opportunity to weigh in on state-sanctioned charter programs. Republican 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 in attempting to make changes to the bill.
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?”
At one point, Rep. McCormick noted that budgetary questions are supposed to be left to the House Finance Committee and that the Education Committee’s domain is supposed to be about good education policy.
However, several Republicans 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 there are many children in Alaska who 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.”
After the committee had worked through all the amendments, only then 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 many saying the hearing lacked transparency and that it was hard to follow what was happening because meeting documents were not being uploaded in a timely fashion.
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 the public hearing in public testimony.
“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.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
