The Alaska Legislature is just over halfway through the current session, and we can gauge its priorities by examining the bills it is working on. Using that criterion, it appears that the legislature is looking for ways to get more revenue from the taxpayer, including again taking a portion of your statutory PFD check, and potentially a state income tax. They are supporting the public school system to the detriment of homeschool kids (HB248) and are considering legislation that promotes the sexual grooming of minor children (SB238). It sounds like a pretty dubious agenda when you stop and think about it.
Their priorities are exactly 180 degrees from what is in the best interests of Alaskans. Instead of their current priorities, they should be looking at ways to cut spending and using existing revenues to balance the budget in the wisest possible way without putting additional burdens on the residents of this state. Then they need to start protecting our young people from sexual predators, but they are doing none of these things.
One of the things driving the budget conversation again this year is public school funding. Despite what we were told in the last legislative session, when school funding was radically increased, taking most of your PFD check in the process, the school lobby evidently wants still more of your money, and there are two basic reasons why, both related to declining enrollment in public schools.
The reason for the funding challenge is that since 2016, there has been a decline in Alaska’s population, meaning we have fewer kids to educate now than previously. The second reason for the decline in enrollment is that many Alaskan families are choosing private or homeschool options for their kids, further starving the public schools. Currently, about 25% of Alaska’s school-age kids are homeschooled. The number of homeschooled kids has climbed every year since Covid, because parents are looking for better options for their kids than what they can get from a state-funded public school.
Instead of trying to foist this garbage legislation off onto the public, maybe they should look for ways to cut spending, better educate our children, and protect our kids from sexual predators.
Declining school enrollment for both of these reasons has a knock-on effect on school funding. Schools are paid based on the student enrollment headcount. Schools get less state funding when the head count goes down, but are stuck with the same existing school operating costs. When you have a 75% smaller student population in the same-sized school, the O&M costs have to be shared among a smaller student body, increasing the cost per student. Declining enrollment is a double whammy that deprives schools of funding and, at the same time, drives education costs up at a higher rate than legislative BSA tweaks can keep up with. In large communities like Anchorage or Fairbanks, school consolidation and closure can address the problem, but smaller communities don’t have that option and are stuck with increasingly expensive schools.
There are, however, cost-effective solutions to these challenges, but only if we have enlightened legislators willing to think outside the box and seek changes to what is now being done. Instead of trying to force a one-size-fits-all public school on us, they should be increasing support for the school options parents prefer, which include charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling. All of these options are gaining in popularity and can educate kids more economically than the existing bloated public school system.
If a religious school in Anchorage can deliver a better education than the public school next door, and do it for half the price, then why does that public school exist, other than to help fund the teachers’ union, which donates to the Democrats?
Outmigration of people from Alaska also needs to be addressed in the context of its impact on the broader financial health of our state. Alaska’s population has declined every year since Governor Walker began confiscating a portion of the annual PFD check in 2016. Alaska’s population is about 150,000 people smaller than it should be because of this confiscatory tax. The PFD is a significant benefit to low-wage earners, but when the legislature takes most of their PFD, it is the most regressive of income taxes. Many people are voting with their feet and moving out of state as a result of this confiscatory tax. If our legislature proceeds with its foolish idea to implement an income tax on top of the existing PFD confiscation, you can expect more people to leave. Increasing taxes on the poor is about the stupidest possible idea our legislature could come up with, but that is exactly what some of our legislators are considering.
The last issue that seems to be important to our state Senate is supporting a bill to legalize the sexual exploitation of minor children. Last Monday, the Senate Education Committee voted to advance SB238 out of committee. If you aren’t familiar with SB238, this bill takes away any legal liability for librarians if they provide sexually explicit pornographic materials to minor children.
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Think about that for a minute. We have laws against this. Specifically, Alaska statute 11.61.128, which says that when an adult provides pornography to a child under age 16, it is a Class C Felony. SB238 strikes that law down, but only for librarians. What individual in their right mind would think this is a good idea? Well, evidently Senators Jesse Kiehl (D-Juneau), Gary Stevens (R-Kodiak), Löki Tobin (D-Anchorage), Jesse Bjorkman (R- Nikiski), and Rob Yundt (R-Wasilla) do. These five members of the Senate Education Committee voted to advance this bill. It boggles the mind trying to understand why our legislators would try to pass a law to help promote pornography for kids, or protect adults who give it to them, but that is exactly what they are doing.
So, in a nutshell, this is what your Alaska Legislature has been working on for the past two months. Instead of seeking cost-effective ways to educate children, they are trying to find ways to prop up a failing public school system. Instead of trying to live within our means, they are looking for new ways to tax Alaskans into poverty, and while they are at it, they are helping subvert the morals of our children.
The Democratic majority and their Vichy RINO allies running both houses in our legislature have their priorities exactly reversed. Instead of trying to foist this garbage legislation off onto the public, maybe they should look for ways to cut spending, better educate our children, and protect our kids from sexual predators. These aren’t novel concepts; these ideas are the very basis of what moral legislators would work on, instead of the woke crap that our current legislature is trying to foist off on us.
The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
