Pending education legislation dominates town hall meeting

WASILLA — If Gov. Sean Parnell did — as he said in his State of the State address this year — want this year’s legislative gathering to be an “education session,” the discussion at Saturday’s town hall meeting indicates he got his wish.

“The voucher system will give us the opportunity to choose,” Larry Wood of Palmer told the state legislators gathered to hear from constituents in the gymnasium of Wasilla Middle School.

Lynn Kracke, an elementary school teacher, said that since private schools can choose not to educate special needs students, vouchers would leave “under-chosen schools under-funded and tasked with the education of the most needy children.”

Both speakers were addressing the measures in the House and Senate this session that would put to a vote of the people an amendment to the Alaska Constitution. The change would clear the way for public funding of private schools that many believe is a prelude to the establishment of a state school voucher system.

Legislators gathered constituted the Valley’s entire delegations: Sens. Mike Dunleavy and Charlie Huggins and Reps. Shelley Hughes, Bill Stoltze, Eric Feige, Mark Neuman and Lynn Gattis.

Neal Lacy, the first person to speak at the meeting and a former member of the Mat-Su Borough School Board, told the delegation to focus on other issues.

“Vouchers are a bad idea,” he said.

But a pair of home-schooled students said that if the measure passed. it would allow them to take classes that aren’t religious, but are barred from state funding now because the course materials come from Christian publishing companies.

Berkley Tilton, a developer and fixture at local political meetings and member of the Knik-Fairview Community Council, said that worrying about vouchers is putting the cart before the horse.

“Let’s find out if there’s an amendment first,” he said. “Then we can have a talk about how we’re going to distribute or not distribute money.”

While vouchers dominated the discussion, some folks came to talk about other things. Don Carney, facilities coordinator for the Mat-Su Borough School District, said he worries about the state pulling the extension of Seward Meridian Parkway out of its Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan. Carney said a large number of students would be affected by safer transportation in the area.

Cindy Bettine, a former borough assemblywoman and current owner of a Wasilla travel company, said that she’s starting to consider letting employees that work in Big Lake off work early to beat traffic on the Parks Highway.

“I truly believe this is affecting our economic development,” she said. “We just can’t move around here during the day when we’re doing business anymore.”

She urged legislators to fast-track work to expand the Parks Highway from Meadow Lakes to Big Lake.

Rep. Neuman said that the work should actually start this summer.

“You’ll see dirt this year,” he told the crowd.

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