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Mar
9:
SSCE Truancy
and Dropouts
— 8:00 am
CANCELED
TIME MARCHES ON
Today marked the 52nd day of the 2007 legislative session.
The weather remains difficult in Juneau with near record
snow. The energy council is meeting in Washington D.C. this
week and weekend and so the legislature is going into almost
a spring break mode with canceled meetings (see calendar)
and people getting out of town. At the end of next week,
the House will take public testimony on the budget. This
will likely not have a true K-12 education component as the
Base Student Allocation will be set later in the session.
The Senate is now beginning their budget subcommittee
meetings. It’s indeed a long process to get to the
completed budget. Stay tuned!
NEW
LEGISLATION — HB 179
Rep.
Mike Kelly (Fairbanks) introduced HB 179 in the Alaska State
House. This 34 page/71 section bill is another attempt to
dump more of the costs of retirement on to employees. This
is the same Mike Kelly that introduced legislation in 2005
to increase the contributions for employees.
While NEA-Alaska understands Rep. Kelly can introduce any
legislation he would like, we hope for more consultation in
the future. It appears we will always be on the opposite
side of the fence to this lawmaker. Why? He seems to think
the PERS/TRS problems belong to the employee and not to the
actuary, former reduced employer contributions and other
factors.
SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
The
SSCE met yesterday morning to hear HB 31 (Truancy). The
hard core truants are not being addressed in this
legislation and NEA-Alaska recommends many hearings before
moving this legislation.
Sen.
Stevens (Kodiak) has been making several quality comments on
the 70% funding for instruction that exists currently in
Alaska. Let’s support Sen. Gary Stevens and try to make the
current law workable and not rush to do away with the
requirement just because some districts need waivers to the
requirement.
KUDOS
FOR REP. ROSES
Many
have commented on the quality work done by Rep. Bob Roses
(Anchorage) as a freshman lawmaker. As a former award
winning teacher and four-year President of the 3,600 member
Anchorage Education Association, we always knew that Bob
Roses would arrive prepared and ready to learn and ready to
lead.
SPEAKING OF THE AEA
The
Advisory Arbitration report was received from Howell
Lankford. There were several interesting comments at the
State’s lack of funding in the past. “In Brief, during the
period of 1997 to 2000 the district fell on economic hard
times, based largely on the State’s penurious funding of
K-12 education over that period.”
This
speaks volumes to the attempt of the 13,000 members of
NEA-Alaska to increase the BSA to $5,953 per student, adding
another $115 million to K-12 funding. NEA-Alaska invites
all school districts to assist in getting to adequate K-12
funding through discussions with lawmakers in Juneau.
NEA-Alaska has continued to lead the recovery of twenty
years (1983-2002) of under funding of K-12 education in
Alaska.
The next
LCS will be published on Tuesday, March 13th. If you know
anyone who wishes to receive the LCS/Legislative Update,
please send us an e-mail with their home e-mail address if
possible, and we’ll add them to the growing list of K-12
education advocates!
Bill Bjork, NEA-Alaska
President
Lydia Garcia, Interim Executive Director
John Alcantra, Government Relations
CAN IT REALLY BE DAY 50 OF THE 2007 SESSION?
Today marked the 50th day of the 2007
legislative session. The weather remains difficult in Juneau
with record snow. The federal government, state government
and school district all took a snow day yesterday for the
sake of safety of children and employees. The capitol kept
chugging along with the reality of missed days at the end of
this week (due to energy council in D.C. and other events).
The
Bettye Fahrenkamp classic occurred this past weekend. My
poor reporting led many to believe that Sen. Fahrenkamp
spent most of her teaching career in Tennessee. Tennessee
was her childhood home and she was a Fairbanks teacher
before representing Fairbanks in the State Senate. I thank
several Fairbanks members for pointing out the slight.
NEA-Alaska presents the “Bettye Fahrenkamp Award” for
political action to members and occasionally to elected
officials that keep K-12 education a highest priority. We
continue to help sponsor the tournament and to remember
Senator Fahrenkamp for her great work!
NEW LEGISLATION — HB 179
Rep.
Mike Kelly (Fairbanks) introduced HB 179 in the Alaska State
House. This 34 page/71 section bill is another attempt to
dump more of the costs of retirement on to employees. This
is the same Mike Kelly that introduced legislation in 2005
to increase the contributions for employees.
While NEA-Alaska understands Rep. Kelly
can introduce any legislation he would like, we hope for
more consultation in the future. It appears we will always
be on the opposite side of the fence to this lawmaker. Why?
He seems to think the PERS/TRS problems belong to the
employee and not to the actuary, former reduced employer
contributions and other factors.
HOUSE
WAYS + MEANS COMMITTEE
The
House Ways + Means committee met yesterday afternoon
(Chaired by Rep. Hawker – Anchorage). The representatives
took up Hawker’s HB 13 (Pension Obligation Bonds). This
legislation allows for the selling of bonds to deal with the
unfunded liabilities. The hope here is the Alaska
Retirement Management Board (ARM Board) could bond money at
5 to 6% and invest for returns in excess of 8%. Done
correctly about 88% of government entities have experienced
net returns. This bill moved from committee on a 5-1 vote
and will next go to the House State Affairs committee.
HOUSE
FINANCE COMMITEE
The
House Finance Committee (Co-Chairs Meyer – Anchorage and
Chenault – Nikiski) took up HB 48 (Retirement Board purchase
PPT
credits). The aforementioned ARM Board has supported this
idea which
is another tool to address the unfunded liability.
KUDOS
FOR REP. ROSES
Many
have commented on the quality work done by Rep. Bob Roses
(Anchorage) as a freshman lawmaker. As a former award
winning teacher and four-year President of the 3,600 member
Anchorage Education Association we always knew that Bob
Roses would arrive prepared and ready to learn and ready to
lead.
SPEAKING OF THE AEA
The
Advisory Arbitration report was received from Howell
Lankford. There were several interesting comments at the
State’s lack of funding in the past. “In Brief, during the
period of 1997 to 2000 the district fell on economic hard
times, based largely on the State’s penurious funding of
K-12 education over that period.”
This
speaks volumes to the attempt of the 13,000 members of
NEA-Alaska to increase the BSA to $5,953 per student, adding
another $115 million to K-12 funding. NEA-Alaska invites
all school districts to assist in getting to adequate K-12
funding through discussions with lawmakers in Juneau.
NEA-Alaska has continued to lead the recovery of twenty
years (1983-2002) of under funding of K-12 education in
Alaska.
The next LCS
will be published on Thursday, March 8th. If you know
anyone who wishes to receive the LCS/Legislative Update,
please send us an e-mail with their home e-mail address
if possible, and we’ll add them to the growing list of
K-12 education advocates!
Bill Bjork, NEA-Alaska
President
Lydia Garcia, Interim Executive Director
John Alcantra, Government Relations
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