Association of Alaska School Boards

Legislative Bulletin

A weekly digest of activity by the Alaska Legislature and U.S. Congress for Alaska’s School Board Members. AASB Tel. 907-586-1083, Fax 907-586-2995. Executive Director, Carl Rose, crose@aasb.org; Editor, John Greely, Review past issues of the Bulletin on the AASB website at http://www.aasb.org. To unsubscribe send an email requesting the same to jgreely@aasb.org

This bulletin is distributed by email only. School districts should copy for board members not online.

February 29, 2008

EDUCATION FUNDING BILL POISED FOR SENATE PASSAGE

A long-time priority of the education community, early and adequate funding of schools by the Alaska Legislature, is approaching reality, with a final vote on House Bill 273 scheduled for Monday, March 3. Besides providing early funding, the measure also raises the Base Student Allocation by $100 a year for the next three years, increases the District Cost Factor for the first time in 10 years, raises the funding for Intensive Needs students and pupil transportation, and protects school districts with declining enrollments from drastic funding cuts.

HB 273 passed the House of Representatives on Monday by a vote of 32 to 5. The roll-call vote is here:

http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_jrn_page.asp?session=25&bill=HB273&jrn=2081&hse=H

The bill then sailed through the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday following 45 minutes of testimony from school districts, parents, NEA-Alaska, the Alaska Council of School Administrators and AASB Executive Director Carl Rose. Most who testified said they would prefer the bill raise the Base Student Allocation by $200 a year but that HB 273, as drafted by a special legislative task force last summer, was badly needed. “This is nothing short of phenomenal,” said Rose.

When more than 100 school board members from around the state attended the AASB Legislative Fly-in on Feb. 9-12, the funding bill emerged as the top priority for education issues in 2008. An outline of those issues is here:

http://www.aasb.org/Frontpage/Feature1.html

HB 273 was on the Senate calendar today (Friday) but held for a final vote on Monday. The latest news report on the measure is here:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/330377.html

A news report on the House vote on HB 273 is here:

http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=7924814

SCHOOL INTERVENTION BILLS WINS SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVAL

A bill expanding the powers of the state to intervene in the hiring and budget decisions of a school district where academic achievement is poor gained a vote of approval today (Friday) in the Senate Special Committee on Education. Chairman Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, sponsored SB 285 at the request of the Department of Education & Early Development. The department is under orders of a Superior Court judge to increase its oversight of several school districts following her ruling last July in the Moore v. State lawsuit.

Since 2005, the state has intervened in six districts where student scores in reading, writing and math tests were below proficient. The state said it looked closely at 10 other school districts, but instead of intervening, EED required them to develop a plan of improvement.

Eddy Jeans, EED’s director of school finance, said SB 285 is needed to remove any doubt about the authority of the state to redirect school funding, hire district or school instructional coaches, or remove school personnel when needed. The bill would also provide $538,400 for EED to staff a School Improvement Office in the Office of Commissioner and hire contractors to work in districts and individual schools.

Carl Rose, executive director of AASB, told the committee that AASB had offered its services to districts to help in governance training, where needed. He predicted that school districts affected by SB 285 would not be pleased to see it passed, but that the public and Judge Sharon Gleason expect the Legislature to take some action short of a complete take-over of local school districts.

Rose urged the Legislature to consider ways to monitor EED’s intervention program to avoid exorbitant costs and to assure that any intervention is effective. An amendment was added requiring EED to notify the Legislature before intervening in a district or withholding any school funds.

SB 285 was forwarded to the Finance Committee for additional hearings. Click here for a copy of the latest version:

http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill_text.asp?hsid=SB0285B&session=25

BUDGET BILLS GAINING SPEED IN HOUSE AND SENATE

As the Legislature passed the half-way point of the 90-day regular session this week, the Finance Committees in each chamber prepared major spending bills for floor debate. The House was scheduled to vote on Monday on HB 310 (operating budget) and HB 312 (mental health budget).

Details of those bills can be found here:

http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill_text.asp?hsid=HB0310B&session=25

And here:

http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill_text.asp?hsid=HB0312B&session=25

Before approving the operating budget, the House Finance Committee added $600,000 to the budget for the Alaska Head Start program and $307,000 to the early education initiative in EED.

In the Senate, a supplemental budget for FY 2008 was taking shape in the form of SB 256. Among the major features of its initial draft is a $2.6 billion appropriation to the Constitutional Budget Reserve. The bill also appropriates an additional $1.4 million to the state’s School Incentive Program. Another $750,000 is set aside for nine school districts to reimburse them for past over-payment of retirement expenses.

EDUCATION BILLS UP FOR HEARINGS NEXT WEEK

Tuesday, March 4, 9 am Senate State Affairs Committee

HB 259 Establishing Alaska History Week

Wednesday, March 5, 8 am Senate Education Committee

SCR 16 Education Funding/Cost Factor Commission

Wednesday, March 5, 1:30 pm House Finance Committee

HB 373 School Bond Debt Reimbursement

Thursday, March 6, 3 pm House HESS Committee

HB 332 Pre-elementary school programs

HB 384 Electronic Education Records/Student Plan

Saturday, March 8, 1:30 pm Senate Education Committee

Workshop on Charter Schools