Prior Updates - Week of:   

 Action necessary:
►   Print and distribute this message to colleagues and friends.
 Calendar:
►  1/23/08: Sen Finance - 9am - HB 125-Long Range Fiscal Plan
►  1/23/08: Joint H/S Administration - 3:30 - Budget overview by Commissioner Kreitzer
►  1/24/08: Joint H/S Finance - 1:00 pm - FY 09 budget discussion with Karen Rehfeld - Director - Office of
       Management & Budget
►  1/24/08: House HESS - 3 pm - HB 234 - Education Loan Repayment Program
►  1/24/08: Joint H/S - DEED Finance Subcommittee - 5 pm

Busy Already
In a move destined to please Alaskans the legislature has stepped up its usual beginning of session schedule. Today there was a House HESS meeting on education funding (see story below) that went on for over two hours and was followed up with an almost two hour joint House/Senate finance sub­committee on the Department of Education and Early Develop­ment (DEED)

House HESS
The House Health, Education and Social Services (HESS) met today on HB 273. All seven members of the committee were present for the meeting. The meeting went for over two hours and included testimony from more than a dozen Alaskans, rep­resenting school districts, parents and NEA-Alaska members.

The bill, introduce by Rep. Mike Hawker (Anchorage) on behalf of the Joint Legislative Education Funding Task Force. The bill would add money for intensive needs students, fund 50% of the Area Cost Differentials (also referred to as the district cost fac­tors) and would add $100 to the Base Student Allocation (BSA) for each year over the next 3 years. All testimony thanked the efforts of the task force that spent 8 full days this past summer dealing with the intricacies of K-12 funding.

NEA-Alaska, while appreciative, pointed out that the $100 in­crease to the BSA would be less than 1/2 of the inflation rate.

HB 273 was moved out of committee. The next stop is the House Finance Committee.

Joint House/Senate Finance subcommittee on DEED
The joint DEED finance subcommittee (with 7 representatives and 4 senators) met for over 90 minutes to go through the over­view of the DEED budget. This is very early and the joint meet­ing is a direct impact of the 90-day session deadline lawmakers face this year. The committee meets again on Thursday at 5:00 pm to finish the overview and dig deeper into some of the topics broached today (Alaska Youth Military Academy, Mt. Edgecumbe and larger funding issues).

NEA-Alaska Delegate Assembly
The 52nd annual NEA-Alaska Delegate Assembly (DA) occurs January 24-26, 2008 at the Anchorage Hilton. The DA is where approximately 400 delegates, elected by the 13,000 members of NEA-Alaska meet to set the policy of NEA-Alaska for the year. The DA predates Alaska statehood and is the major event of the year for NEA-Alaska.

The delegates will determine the legislative priorities for the 2008 session. Whether it’s increases to K-12 funding, returning to a defined benefit pension system or other topics, the NEA-Alaska lobby team will be here to continue advocating for your issues. Due to Delegate Assembly, the next legislative update will be published next week.

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