OPINION: Alaska House Republicans endanger language immersion

Alaska House Republicans recently voted to uphold Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto and kill a widely supported education bill. Since a two-thirds vote is required to override a veto, the 39 legislators voting “yes” for a veto override fell one vote short of the margin to raise Base Student Allocation (BSA) funding, support for Reads Act implementation, and expanded support for charter and home schools. Anchorage-area Republicans Tom McKay, Julie Coulombe, Craig Johnson, Dan Saddler and Jamie Allard all voted to kill this education bill. Let’s look at what that means for our kids.

The failure of these legislators to override Dunleavy’s veto means class sizes could increase even more. We can each speak based on our children’s lived experience that many of our classrooms are so crowded there’s nowhere for students to sit at a desk. Our class sizes are 50% larger than they should be, in clear violation of Alaska Constitution requirements that the state adequately fund education.

Cuts to immersion programs as a result of Dunleavy and his Republican allies in the House are even more devastating. Coulombe’s vote against education funding may mean the loss of two teaching positions at O’Malley Elementary’s French immersion program. McKay’s vote could mean cutting a teaching position from Sand Lake’s Japanese immersion program. Government Hill (Spanish) and College Gate (Yup’ik) may also lose positions, endangering the viability of these programs.

An important reason some of us moved back to Anchorage was our experience going through the immersion programs offered by the Anchorage School District. We were not only academically challenged by these programs, but we gained a better understanding of different cultures and viewpoints that have been invaluable in our lives. It is the reason many of us decided to move back to Anchorage — to provide the same opportunity for our kids to be challenged and exposed to different and amazing cultures. As a result, we understand the risk such thin staffing can have on immersion programs as you begin to learn a new language. If Republicans’ goal was to destroy our economy and keep families like ours from staying in Alaska, they’re doing an awfully good job. It is why Alaska has suffered net outmigration of thousands of Alaskans every year over the last decade as education has been cut and class sizes have gone up.

Of course, Republicans upholding the veto also means IGNITE is back on the chopping block. Guess who has the most IGNITE students in his district? McKay voted to defund immersion programs in his district and, effectively, to defund IGNITE. The IGNITE program addresses both the academic and social needs of our gifted students in grades 2-6 and provides the necessary higher-level curriculum to spark their wonder and pleasure in academics. For one author’s child, who only just qualified this year is seeing they are reinvigorated with a love for school. IGNITE is meant to address students’ abilities to help them reach their full potential and has been shown to get students more deeply engaged in learning and reduce social and behavioral problems.

These anti-education Republicans will not listen to parents, and will not listen to business leaders who are pleading for help with training the next generation workforce. When elected officials don’t listen, there is a very simple solution: Fire them and elect new representatives who will be responsive to voters.

If you are an Anchorage voter living in one of these districts, remember who’s voting to decimate our schools. We need a new, pro-education majority in the Alaska House of Representatives if our kids and families are going to have a future in this state.

Francis McLaughlin, Chantal de Alcuaz, Jessica Simonsen, Lara Nations, Megan Collie and Jason Bockenstedt are parents of current and future participants in the Anchorage School District’s immersion and IGNITE programs.

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