Assembly votes to support education

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted to pass a highly controversial resolution on Tuesday. The resolution states that the assembly supports funding for education, and many educators came out to support the resolution. However, the resolution would not be passed as written and instead, Assemblyman Ted Leonard passed two amendments adding the governor’s priorities to a resolution that was widely seen as a rebuttal to the 25 percent cut to Base Student Allocation statewide.

“This is not a problem with funding it’s a problem with how we fund our schools,” said Todd Smoldon, the director of the governor’s Mat-Su office. “I visited the MyHouse recently and it’s a wonderful organization. One of the things I noticed was the young people sitting there and I thought to myself you know if those two young men had a full PFD this year, they could pay for their own apartment for a year and they were there looking for housing assistance because they couldn’t afford rent, but a full PFD would have given them that so I’d like people to consider the power of a full PFD.”

Mat-Su Educators Association Dianne Shibe had a different opinion.

“Dunleavy’s budget has just increased the risk. Districts are having to compete more and more for fewer and fewer educators. I want Alaska to be the top draw for education talent and I want the Mat-Su district to be the top draw in Alaska,” Shibe said.

While dozens of educators wore red shirts in support of education, there were those that still feel that education receives too much state funding. Jessica Vaudreil-Kim said that the NEA is public enemy number one.

“Seventeen thousand dollars per student per year, how much is enough? Few people receive the wages and benefits of our public employees, if they like the job they would stay. Maybe it’s the company they work for,” Amy Henry said.

Henry was far from alone in her feeling that Dunleavy’s budget needs more support. Carol Carman, a retired educator, suggested that the state should only have two school superintendents, one for rural Alaska and one for urban.

“There are many ways that they can save money and I’m convinced of that, but they won’t even try because they’re used to demanding and getting,” Carman said. “In our borough we overwhelmingly voted for governor Dunleavy by a large margin and your resolution is a slap in his face and a slap in our faces.”

Teacher Joy Miller said that her class size has jumped from 25 to 38 since 2001, and that she is only allotted six minutes per week per student if she were to spend each class period with students individually. Miller asked for more than six minutes a week.

“The teachers in this borough are amazing and incredibly adept at doing more with less, but I caution everyone because there is a tipping point where this is unsustainable,” Miller said.

Once the resolution was on the table, members of the assembly were quick to try and change it. Assemblyman George McKee offered an amendment that said ‘full funding for education will require additional budgetary reductions in medicaid, the ferry system, public safety and all other services in the state,’ and not seconds after delivering his amendment, moved to call the question and end debate.

“If the administration identified waste and made appropriate cuts based on that waste, I could fully understand what they’re doing. But instead what they’re doing is cutting it 25 percent without any measure of what that will do. In my opinion, what it will do is it will hobble our education system,” Mayfield said.

Mayfield said that his resolution was not anti-Dunleavy. Testifying teachers also noted that number in particular.

“I can say with a pretty high degree of confidence that there’s not 25 percent waste. There’s no where close to it,” said Teeland Middle School teacher Michael Backus.

Not only were educators opposed to a cut to the BSA, but also Dunleavy’s education statistics in general.

“If Dunleavy campaigned on the facts that he was going to cut schools 25 percent, I don’t think people would have voted for that they would not have voted for those things,” Jackie Cunningham said. “I think there’s skewed data. I think he’s using a small portion of the data to get across that schools are failing and schools in Alaska are not failing.”

Assemblyman Jesse Sumner moved to add onto McKee’s amendment, the university system and school bond debt reimbursement, and the amendment ultimately failed. Mayfield answered McKee’s motion to call the question on his amendment with another amendment as a rebuttal, moving to amend that ‘the governor instead choose to cut $1.2 billion in oil tax subsidies to oil companies in order to fund education.’ Mayfield’s amendment also failed, but the Assembly was just getting started. Discussion then began focusing on what governing body had the job of identifying priorities in spending cuts.

“I’m against this body trying to tell the state legislature and the governor what the priority should be,” McKee said.

Leonard added an amendment to the resolution supporting education funding in support of the governor’s constitutional amendment for a spending cap

“When we send this message we are saying this is a priority,” Leonard said. “I don’t particularly think the house did do their job. They put priorities that were not important to our citizens first. We need to send a complete message to the legislature and the governor on this issue.”

Leonard’s amendment to support the Governor’s spending cap passed with Assembly members Tam Boeve, Jim Sykes and Mayfield opposed.

“It’s not about sending a message to the legislature that hits every little check box. It’s about sending a message to the legislature saying that our education system is doing well, we support it and we don’t want to see the education system hobbled,” Mayfield said.

Leonard then proposed an amendment to the resolution supporting a full Permanent Fund Dividend.

“There is no cut that was proposed that will impact the Mat-Su Borough to the degree that PFD cuts will impact the MSB,” Sumner said. “In no situation would we be better off with the state either cutting the permanent fund or imposing a statewide tax.”

Usually meek Tam Boeve spoke up to voice her opposition.

“I have a real problem with what should’ve been a simple resolution, we should’ve been able to come together on this. We should have agreed that education is important. Our students, our children are the most important thing and we are just so in the weeds on political ideology and why’s and wherefores it’s not even productive conversation any more. I supported the original resolution, I can’t support it in it’s highjacked form,” Boeve said.

Leonard’s second amendment passed and the resolution to support education funding will have amendments to support the governor’s spending cap and a full PFD attached when it heads to legislators.

“I disagree with assembly member Leonard that we have to make a choice between paying the full PFD and education,” Sykes said. “You can make that false choice for anything you really care about and it is a false choice, but it is not our job to decide what that is. It is the legislators job.”