Alaska parents have a right to speak up when their government isn't acting to allow kids a fair shake in life. Or fair opportunity to succeed. We agree with their concerns and have voted to reverse the last three years of teacher and staff cuts.
We will continue to fight. This year we will work to prevent the proposed cut of 6 percent of the Anchorage School District's teachers, needed counselors and those charged with training youth to fill and excel at Alaska jobs we don't want to bring people up from Outside to fill.
While our Democratic caucus has voted to reverse and prevent teacher and staff cuts, public education must become a bipartisan issue again. Cutting waste in school construction costs is smart. Cutting those who help students succeed is not. Increasing class sizes is not.
According to the nonpartisan Legislative Research Division, over the last three years school districts have had to cut more than 600 teachers, career and guidance counselors, and other needed staff.
Employers need well-educated students to grow and diversify our economy. That's why the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. recently sounded the alarm that without quality schools, we harm efforts to build a quality economy.
We understand this and have voted to reverse the past three years of staff cuts. We voted to build, not diminish, educational opportunity. Unfortunately, each attempt we made over the last three years to stem another year of educator cuts, and reverse them, met a wall of party line and governor opposition. Making a commitment to education must become nonpartisan again. It used to be.
That's especially important this year. Gov. Sean Parnell just announced a school budget that leaves Alaska schools short -- yet again. Anchorage will have a $24 million shortfall under the governor's proposal.
In the Mat-Su, a growing school district, school officials sounded the alarm that they need better than the governor's fourth year in a row of no classroom funding increases. Statewide, the majority of Alaska students face a duller future if this continues.
By the end of session, if the governor's proposal isn't scrapped, we'll approach the loss of 1,000 educators under his tenure.
A strong economy depends on all Alaskan students, even ones with less than ideal homes, getting a fair chance at opportunity. Continually cutting educators means unnecessary frustration for children who would otherwise excel; less attention for children who need an extra hand; more missed signs of suicide, abuse, or neglect.
Many say schools should teach with evidence-based practices. We agree. The evidence says teachers should have time to teach to individual students. Decreasing teacher support doesn't let teachers spend needed time with students who would benefit from individual attention.
The evidence also says preschool works. The mayor of New York City gets it. And it's not just Democratic officials who get it. In Oklahoma, a red state, children enjoy voluntary universal pre-K. But Gov. Parnell and his allies have vastly shortchanged pre-kindergarten in Alaska.
Why does early childhood education, at home or in preschool, work? Because a child's brain develops most rapidly by age four. When these children get the chance to learn, they learn well, and that confidence and early success carries far into their scholastic careers. Schools spend more money on children who fall behind. The more children with a head start, the better they'll learn, and the less we'll have to spend on remedial education.
Want evidence? The Perry Preschool Study followed two groups of low-income youth through adulthood. Those who attended pre-K graduated and attended college in higher numbers and cost the state less in welfare, jail, law enforcement and legal costs.
Let's also talk about a half truth the governor repeats -- that somehow classroom funding has been increasing but that's leading to teacher layoffs? Here's the full story. We've added funds to pay down billions in debt we owe to school retirement systems -- but that money cannot legally be spent in the classroom. It's the same with the increase to cover bussing and heating costs. And the Legislature fixed a discriminatory funding formula many years ago that shortchanged rural students. That fix predated the Parnell administration.
None of this has put needed funds into classrooms since 2011, when the "policy" of staff layoffs started.
If we want Alaska's children to have a chance at tomorrow's jobs, then we cannot allow the state to sacrifice student opportunity to yet another year of damaging cuts. That's something even politicians should be able to understand.
Reps. Harriet Drummond and Les Gara are Democrats representing Anchorage in the Alaska House of Representatives.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.