Gov. Mike Dunleavy has outlined specific policy priorities he wants the Alaska Legislature to tackle when lawmakers reconvene in special session on August 2. According to a July 28 statement, his top priority is education reform, which includes concrete policies tied to any funding demands.
Whether the Democrat-controlled Legislature will work with the governor remains to be seen, but Alaska has long been among the worst in the nation when it comes to teaching students basic reading and math skills. As a result, many parents have left traditional public schools in favor of homeschooling and public charter schools. Dunleavy wants to increase educational options, as well as tie any funding requests to changes in education policy.
In particular, Dunleavy wants lawmakers to focus on a multi-pronged reform package that addresses Alaska’s chronic education-outcome crisis by implementing the following solutions:
— Tribal Compacting between the state Department of education and select tribes to create better performing schools.
— Expansion of corporate tax credit program for education.
— Authorize the Department of Education as a charter school authorizer in addition to local districts.
— Open enrollment, allowing public school students to enroll in any public school that has room including outside of a student’s resident district.
— Grants for reading improvement and for a new after school reading tutoring program
— Recruitment retention payments to classroom teachers to reduce turnover, especially in areas of the state that suffer from chronic teacher turnover.
— Long-term certainty in funding for K-12 schools if agreement is reached on policy.
“This is an opportunity to address Alaska’s performance issues and funding issues in K-12 education well into the future,” Dunleavy stated. “By addressing this now, school districts, students, parents, teachers, and policymakers will have certainty and will not have to debate this issue during the regular session that begins in January.”
Dunleavy is urging legislators to prioritize these bills and deliver results in the special session, emphasizing that these policies build on years of public input and legislative debate. Bills will be introduced on the first day of the special session, August 2. Bill hearings are requested to begin the very next day.
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Dr. Deena Bishop, Commissioner of Education, is in full support of the governor’s education agenda.
“As a lifelong public educator, teacher, principal, and superintendent, I know strong policy paired with reliable funding has positively demonstrated increases in student achievement, as evidenced the Alaska Reads Act,” she noted on July 28. “The reforms the Governor is advancing are proven elsewhere to boost parent involvement, student engagement, and academic performance. Together these measures give districts a predictable multiyear funding stream, enabling them to engage in long term strategic planning and ensure an excellent education for every student, every day.”
In addition to education policy, Dunleavy is also asking lawmakers to approve the creation of a new State Department of Agriculture, which will focus on strengthening food security and agricultural infrastructure across the state.
5 Comments
Typical government approach! DUNLEAVY AND BISHOP HAVE HAD YEARS TO PRODUCE ANYTHING OF QUALITY, BUT TO DATE THEIR TIME HAS BEEN AN EPIC FAILURE!!! THIS ISN’T BRAIN SURGERY, AND I MIGHT SUGGEST THAT THE PRODUCT that these schools are producing THE GOVERNOR AND SUPERINTENDENT subject themselves to the incompetence being generated! FOR EXAMPLE GET AN OPERATION FROM A DR THAT DEI OR WOKE Anchorage school systems have created! I DARE THEM!!!
If the Weak Republicans would not caucus with democrats. We Alaskans would have a full PFD more oil in the pipeline, Jobs etc.
We need a long term strategy to make things work slope
You are right, NOAH! I’m sick of the gaslighting of this administration. We are long overdue having term limits and more controls on the governor’s office. Time to change the state constitution to term limits for legislature and the congressional group of three members.
Time is short and Dunleavy will be gone from office and the hellish work he has done will have to be corrected. The fraud, waste and abuse of this governor has gone far beyond what any person can evaluate when you look at the balance of the PFD and the damage done to it and the government work for the state. With the lying, mealy mouthed Adam Crumb, don’t count on a workable amount left to build any asset of our natural resources with his theft of funds and Dunleavy’s blessing.
The sooner Dunleavy is gone, the better.