March 17, 2014 Voice Your Opinions! Letters to the editor make a difference. You can send a 175-word letter to the Anchorage Daily News by e-mail (letters@adn.com); or by fax or mail (call them at 257-4308). Send letters to the Anchorage Press via e-mail editor@anchoragepress.com or by mail to 540 E. Fifth Ave, Anchorage, 99501. Feel free to call us if you need factual information to help you write a letter. Contact the Governor. The Governor can be reached at 269-7450; sean.parnell@alaska.gov; or www.alaska.gov. Contact us. My office can be reached at: 716 W. 4th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99501; by phone: 269-0106; visit my website at http://gara.akdemocrats.org; or email: Rep.Les.Gara@akleg.gov

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

As someone who grew up in foster care, I know strong schools give everyone, rich and poor, opportunity. Cutting teachers, career counselors, and other educators damages opportunity and harms our goal of developing a well-educated workforce.

When you don’t mow your lawn all summer, you leave a mess, and that’s what three years in a row of shortchanging our schools has caused. It’s time to fix the mess, I believe.

Tomorrow the House Finance Committee with take public testimony on the Governor’s Education Bill, House Bill 278.  The version before us includes an $85 increase to Base Student Allocation (BSA), or per student funding. His first increase since 2011 is so small it will cause a fourth year of teacher and staff cuts.  Public testimony will begin at 5:30. In order to testify, you must be signed in at your local Legislative Information Office (LIO) by 7:00 pm. In Anchorage, the LIO is located at 733 W 4th Ave, Suite 100.

Here is some information you can use whether or not you agree that funding should be increased by roughly $404, as I and others have proposed. That amount would prevent a fourth year of teacher and staff layoffs in most districts, and help reverse some of the 600+ staff losses since 2011. The Governor’s first proposed increase in four years would save only 1/4 to 1/3 of the 300-350 teacher and staff layoffs schools have announced for next year. In fact, highly questionable testimony today by the Parnell administration said schools will be fine with less than half of schools say they need.

A report we commissioned from the independent Legislative Research Division shows that, in order to avoid cutting educators a fourth year in a row, Alaska’s six largest school districts need an increase of roughly four times more per-pupil funding next year than the Governor has proposed, or about $320 per student on average (some school districts need more, some need a little less).

Rep. Gara speaking at an education rally

Responses from the Anchorage, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Juneau, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kodiak Island Borough, and Matanuska Susitna Borough school districts ranged from a $245 increase required by Mat-Su to over $400 required by Juneau and other districts to avoid continued cuts this coming school year.

In order to reverse past teacher and staff cuts, and to prevent them in the future, House and Senate Democratic legislators proposed a $404 increase (SB147, HB331) to the BSA this year with an automatic adjustment in each subsequent year to account for inflation. I and my House Democratic colleagues have voted to stop these cuts since they started in 2011.  But public education needs to become bipartisan again.

If you are able, please take some time out of your busy schedule to let the legislature know how important public education is to you. Testimony begins at 5:30 pm tomorrow, Tuesday afternoon.

As always, call if you need help, or have any questions.

My Best,