The Alaska House kicked off the amendment process on its long-awaited school funding bill, House Bill 69, on Monday where Dunleavy-aligned Republicans offered more than 100 changes, including the expanded use of “reasonable nondeadly force” to discipline misbehaving children.
The head-turning amendment came at the end of debate on Monday, kicking off a fierce fight that touched on historical traumas in boarding schools. The measure, proposed by Soldotna Republican Rep. Justin Ruffridge, would allow teachers or any “other person responsible for students” to mete out discipline as outlined in school-by-school rules.
Ruffridge bristled at the notion that the measure would clear the way for expanded corporal punishment in the classrooms, levying several objections to other legislators opposition to his measure.
“By no means should we be hitting children,” Ruffridge said, admonishing others for reading the plain text of his amendment and drawing that conclusion. “It’s not saying that we are wanting teachers to go in and start manhandling children.”
While Ruffridge bristled mightily at the suggestion that his legislation would enable teachers to use corporal punishment on students, it’s also not entirely clear that the legislation doesn’t allow that. It simply talks about allowing teachers and others to discipline children — including with “reasonable force” — and maintain classroom safety. Oh, and it also would help cover their legal fees.
Several other Dunleavy Republicans spoke favorably of the amendment, with Big Lake Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe talking sentimentally about a wooden paddle with speed holes that was used to discipline him in school. “Look at how I turned out,” he exclaimed.
Some insisted that teachers have been secretly pleading for an expanded use of force to discipline students. Eagle River Republican Rep. Dan Saddler mimed a teacher pumping their fists in the air at the measure, adding that there’s “nothing worse to the good order and decorum and progress of a school than a defiant, willful child.”
Legislators in the bipartisan House Majority Coalition met the amendment with horror.
Reps. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, and Robyn Burke, D-Utqiagvik, outlined the horrible historical trauma of corporal punishment perpetrated against Alaska Native students in state boarding schools. Jimmie said some kids never came back.
“Nearly every single Alaska Native student in my district is descended from somebody who was forced to attend a residential school,” Burke said. “My grandmother was picked up, placed in a trash can and hit by a ruler on her hands for speaking her language. There are other options … Expanding corporal punishment doesn’t address the needs appropriately, it opens wounds for rural schools.”
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, said the measure’s ambiguity could mean that a parent chaperone on a school trip would be authorized to dole out physical punishment on students. Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, said no teachers in her schools have been asking for the expanded use of force to control their classrooms but instead for funding that can enable them to have smaller class sizes and appropriate in-classroom support.
While Dunleavy Republicans dutifully lined up in support of the amendment, offering mealy-mouthed and self-important arguments about why expanding the use of allowable force in the classroom is needed, the only one to split was none other than right-wing Eagle River Rep. Jamie Allard (though, oddly, she did co-sponsor the amendment).
“If a teacher ever touched my child, we’re going to have words and maybe more,” she said. “This is not appropriate for anybody. These are government employees, they do not touch my child. I grew up in the 70s, they whipped us. I got paddled, I went to a private Christian school, I know what it feels like. If I saw one of those teachers, I might run them over with a bus. I don’t want this happening to my kid.”
Ultimately, Allard was the only Dunleavy Republican to break from the pack. The amendment failed 18-22.
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 Bluesky.
