NEA-Alaska Legislative Candidate Questionnaire
|
Candidate: Tim June |
Office: House 5 |
Adequate Funding
1. Do you support a needs
based process for determining the level of school funding?
|
Yes Explain: |
If you support needs based
funding, how would you accomplish this?
|
Look at a fairer funding model than the per student approach we use
now. We also need to increase funding
for education statewide. |
2. Do you support a return to the instructional unit approach to funding schools?
|
Yes Explain: It is more suited to |
3. The recent changes in funding for pupil
transportation have had negative impacts in a number of school districts. How would you address this issue?
|
The State has a responsibility to help fund
transportation. If all transportation
costs fall to the local community, then money will flow out of classrooms and
into buses. |
4. Will you commit to working with NEA-Alaska
and other groups in developing a long-range plan to supplement current funding
levels and achieve adequate funding for schools within a decade?
|
Yes |
Attracting & Retaining Quality
Educators
1. Fiscal uncertainty has caused many “new to
the profession” educators to leave Alaskan school districts and even leave the
state. What would you do to eliminate this annual event that has cost our state
so many valuable educators?
|
We need a single tiered system that is fair to all teachers and one that
will retain and attract the best teachers to |
2. Would you work to amend state statute to make
sure that district claims of financial shortfalls are verified by independent
third parties when dealing with the layoff of tenured teachers?
|
Yes Explain:
School boards and administrators may need outside audits to fully
understand and act on their own budgets.
Local budgets need to follow state budgets in the fiscal year. |
Elementary
and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind (ESEA/NCLB)
1. Would you support categorical funding so educators (teachers and instructional aides) can receive professional development to meet the standards set by ESEA/NCLB?
|
Yes |
2. What amendments to the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind) do you believe need to be made
to make the law workable in Alaska?
|
Exempt |
3. What are you willing to
do in concert with NEA-Alaska and other organizations to amend No Child Left
Behind to be “Alaska friendly” and to gain full funding of the Act?
|
Help change whatever we can to get much needed
money and teachers back into the classroom. |
High Stake Testing.
1. This past year, some students did not receive
diplomas for the sole reason they did not pass the High School Graduation
Qualifying Examination (HSGQE.) Would
you support amending the law to allow schools to assess student knowledge and
abilities through a variety of means and not just through a single test?
|
Yes |
2. Would you support funding for additional
programs/staff to specifically assist students having difficulty passing the
HSGQE?
|
Yes |
3. Would you support categorical funding for
district-developed remedial programs for students who do not meet standards on
Alaska’s benchmark exams?
|
Yes |
PERS/TRS
1. Would you support a single tier for each
public retirement system as a means of attracting and retaining quality
educators?
|
Yes |
2. How would you see the state’s public
retirement systems meeting their increasing financial burden?
|
Raise state revenues by restructuring resource
severance taxes. |
Vouchers
1. Do you support the use of public money for
private and religious schools?
|
No |
2. Would you support vouchers?
|
No |
3. Would you support tuition tax credits
|
No |
Safe Schools
1. Students and staff must feel safe and secure
in our schools for learning to take place.
Would you support funding for programs/staff that have been demonstrated
to increase student and staff safety?
|
Yes Explain: Children must feel safe before they can learn. We need to directly address violence, bullying, and racism in our schools |
Note: …. indicates the
response has been truncated.