Group plans Mat-Su education discussion

PALMER — A grassroots education advocacy group is heading to Mat-Su on Tuesday for a discussion about how to help area students.

Billed as a “special gathering of parents, students, educators, community members and leaders who care about education” and sometimes referred to as a “café,” the description organizers give of the meeting sounds like a cross between a potluck and a townhall.

“We don’t even call it a meeting because no parent wants to go to a meeting. It’s a gathering where we sit down over some food. It’s very casual but the questions are very intentional around helping us think,” said Alyse Glavin with Great Alaska Schools.

She said the questions would start with something like, “‘so what do we want for every child?’ and then the next question is a little bit more narrow like, ‘what are we doing right now that’s working well?’”

On its website, Great Alaska Schools describes itself as a statewide coalition working towards “adequate, predictable, and sustainable” state funding for schools and to, “ensure that public funds go to public schools.”

Both of those topics occupied a great deal of the state legislature’s time this year as lawmakers battled back and forth over how much state money should go to schools and also mulled a constitutional amendment that would allow private schools to receive public money.

But, Glavin said, the meeting scheduled for Tuesday has nothing to do with that. Instead, she said, it’s an attempt to fulfill the group’s third goal, which, according to its website, is:

“(To) act to engage community members, leaders, and educators to partner in achieving efficient and effective education outcomes from our public schools for all Alaskan students.”

Glavin said that in meetings across the state politics is the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.

“Money doesn’t come up at all. Elections don’t come up at all. This is a whole separate leg of the work,” she said.

She said it’s actually been something the group has struggled with, notably in Anchorage.

“They called us and almost kicked us out of BP (Energy) Center because they thought that we were being political,” she said.

Really, she said, the idea is just to talk, share stories and discuss education.

“Within five minutes from the beginning of the café every single person in that room has shared a story, a story from their past that’s relevant to this topic,” she said. “They found commonalities that they never thought existed. They feel connected, they feel like their voice matters.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.

What: A gathering to discuss education issues

Where: Mat-Su College, Room FSM 202

When: July 29, 6-8 p.m.

Space is limited so organizers ask attendees to RSVP at 907-884-2299 or greatalaskaschoolsmatsu@gmail.com