APRIL 10, 2014

The Education Session

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This week, my colleagues and I in the Alaska House worked late into the night to provide opportunities to our children by offering fixes to House Bill 278, the omnibus education bill, the major legislation of the year pertaining to our public education system.

This session has been widely touted as the “education session.” House Bill 278 originally seemed to be a step in the right direction by focusing on needed changes such as eliminating the burdensome and unfair High School Qualifying Exam, known as the exit exam, increasing the funding formula which is used to calculate much of the funding for our school districts, and increasing access to charter schools.

Rep. Tarr reading to students at Williwaw Elementary School

Locals students gather at a rally on the Capitol Steps to increase the Base Student Allocation

Too Much Bad, Not Enough Good

House Bill 278 was dramatically changed as various bills were rolled into it without adequate study or public comment when it moved through the House Finance Committee. The bill that came out of House Finance looked very little like what came from House Education. Resources are still not enough and schools face a fourth straight year of teacher cuts, increased class sizes, and cancelled programs.

I have prepared the following summary of some of the major fixes my colleagues and I offered on the house floor so you will have a good idea of what problems we were able to correct and which ones will require our continued attention and effort.

Successful amendments made to H.B. 278:

• Stripping out provisions which would have stretched out payments to the teachers’ retirement fund for decades rather than paying them off sooner. This would have ultimately led to billions in additional future costs and negatively impacted our credit rating.

• Restoring a mechanism to compensate for higher costs in rural Alaska and providing for a one-time grant to schools of $30 million.

• Allowing highly skilled students to test out of certain subjects, saving schools money and students’ time and effort.

Amendments to H.B. 278 that failed:

• Removing a provision giving tax breaks to private religious schools and which likely violates constitutional provisions against state funding of private schools. Retaining this provision serves as a back door to the voucher system.

• Deleting a section that would have the state set pay rates for rural school employees, essentially taking away local control from school districts.

• Providing a 10 percent boost to charter schools to help them with rent and other facilities costs, which they currently must pay themselves unlike other public schools.

• Fixing a prohibition on the Department of Education adopting federal “common core” educational standards. State standards already reflect portions of the common core and we don’t want to prevent them from being implemented if they are good policy.

• Removing a section that would hold teachers in rural Alaska to lower tenure standards than in urban areas.

• Increasing education funding to a level that would allow schools to reverse the previous three years of teacher layoffs and increased class sizes.

I am very glad to have helped fix parts of House Bill 278, but I voted against the bill overall because, as written, it is still inconsistent with this being the “education session.”

We must reverse the previous three years of stagnant education funding which have led to teacher layoffs, increased class sizes, and the loss of valuable programs such as summer school to help students graduate on time.

Some say that properly funding education is unsustainable in current times of budget deficits. I disagree. I see it as a matter of prioritizing spending and making wise investments in our state’s future by ensuring we have children who grow up ready to join the workforce and contribute to building Alaska. The public has made it known that funding for education is a top priority. The Legislature needs to listen.

Our children are our future!

I’m here for you, so please keep in touch on matters important to you and your family!

Sincerely,

Representative Geran Tarr