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Spectrum, by Anne Kilkenny

Friends, have you sent a message about school funding to Juneau yet? You'd better do it today; the legislative session ends on May 11.

If you are happy with the way schools are this year, then you'd better send a message to Juneau that they need to increase state support for education by at least $82 million statewide.

Without an increase of at least $82 million in state funding, schools will be quite different next year.

Tell them "Don't come home without it!"

Are you not happy with the way schools are this year?

Are classes too big? Does your child need programs or classes that aren't available? Does your child have PE only a few days a week? Is there no art, music, foreign language or library exploratories in your child's school anymore?

Is a regular classroom teacher struggling to teach music, or art, or PE or run the library? Are there computers at school that are broken and not getting fixed because of lack of tech support? Is the school building falling apart and starting to look like a dump, with rats running around the building, due to lack of maintenance and janitorial staff?

Do you feel frustrated when you call the school because you can't talk to a live person because the secretarial staff is too busy to answer the phone? Do you have a hard time getting through to your child's teachers because student intervention time at middle schools has been eliminated? Are school counselors too busy dealing with one crisis after another to return calls? Or were assistant principals and school counselors eliminated from your child's school in past budget crunches?

Are the textbooks out of date? Or are there so few textbooks that students have to share them and can't bring them home? Is the school running low on copy paper? Are the school library shelves virtually empty and is your child complaining that there aren't any good books in it?

Was your child's favorite after-school sport or activity cut some years back? Are you tired of paying fees for everything and doing fundraisers for field trips? Do you want more reasonable school hours? Do you hate the having middle and high school students on the same bus?

Does it seem nuts to you that the teachers hired to make sure that no child is left behind, are themselves getting left behind? Do you have teacher-friends who fear being pink-slipped? Does it bug you that nobody knows what classes will be offered next fall and who will teach them?

If you're not happy, then you'd better send a message to Juneau that they need to increase state support for education by at least $149 million, to restore school budgets to levels comparable with 10 years ago.

Do you want to see excellence and quality restored in our schools? Do you see spending-limit bills as dooming our schools to mediocrity with their "no growth, no improvements" philosophy?

Then you had better tell Juneau that you want accountability and efficiency, not artificial spending limits that have loop-holes big enough to drive anything but a K-12 school bus through.

Are you weary of spending every spring begging for adequate funding for schools? Does it infuriate you to have your child's education and his teacher's career put on hold while the Legislature plays political games?

Then you want to ask the Legislature to adopt a fiscal plan and inflation-proof education funding.

And you'd better tell the borough assembly that you are willing to put your money where your mouth is. Tell them that you don't like it, but you will accept the necessary property tax increase so that they can fund schools to the maximum allowed by state law.

Are you tired of the Legislature shifting its responsibilities onto the backs of local property taxpayers? Are you wondering how state Legislators can claim to be "fully funding" education, as the state Constitution mandates, when state support for education in Mat-Su is only about 60 percent of the school budget?

Are you disgusted by legislators using education as a pawn in their game? Does tacking "for education" onto every bill look to you like a bait and switch in the making? Tell them!

Tell them you want excess earnings of the permanent fund used as guaranteed matching money for education to fund an increase in education support.

Tell them "The time is always right to do what's right!" (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).

Email them: Representative (or Senator)_(first name)_(last name)@legis.state.ak.us

Send a POM (Public Opinion Message). Call 376-3704 with your message of 50 words or less to be sent to all members of the House and Senate.

Fax your 50 word message for all members of the House and Senate to 376-6180.

Call -- most legislators have toll free numbers. Call them while you're waiting to pick up your child at school.

Be a part of the solution. Make the Legislature and borough assembly listen and respond. A few voices, no matter how eloquent and persistent, cannot make things happen. It takes lots of people speaking the truth as they know it, and repeating the message, if necessary.

Legislators are counting on us being apathetic or getting burned out. Let's surprise 'em!

As University of Alaska's Mark Hamilton has said, Alaska is not wanting for solutions; Alaska is waiting for solutions. There are many options available to the Legislature for addressing school funding issues and a fiscal plan. Alaskans are waiting for leadership from the Legislature … the legislature is waiting to hear from voters … and you are waiting for?

Anne Kilkenny is a mom who believes that quality public education is essential for a healthy economy and well-functioning democracy.