Rep. Craig Johnson of Anchorage recently introduced a new version of Senate Bill 140, radically altering what had been a bipartisan bill to restore education funding and modernize broadband in schools.
The changes proposed by Rep. Johnson include:
• Slashing the already-inadequate BSA increase of $680 to $300 per student.
The $680 increase represented an annual investment of about $175 million. Johnson’s proposal cut this by 56% to about $77 million. The Alaska Association of School Boards has recently called for an increase of $1,413 per student.
• Allowing the Alaska Board of Education to bypass locally-elected school boards and approve de facto voucher programs whose lack of oversight could allow public money to be spent illegally on religious education.
This is just the latest attempt by some anti-public education ideologues to defund public education and illegally shift money into private religious schools in violation of the Alaska State Constitution.
In April 2023, the Anchorage School District revoked the charter of the Family Partnership Charter for, among other things, when “ASD learned that curriculum that was religious in nature was among the curriculum purchased with public dollars.”
Jodi Taylor, the wife of Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, stated: “There is an opportunity — which has been hiding from public view — for families to use their children’s education allotment funded through the state’s Base Student Allocation for classes at private schools, in addition to other educational options.” She went on to detail how she planned to use Anchorage School District’s Family Partnership to reimburse her children’s attendance at St.
Elizabeth Anne Seton, an Anchorage religious private school.
Because the Anchorage School District and the new Superintendent Jharett Bryantt had the courage to stop the unconstitutional diversion of public funds to private and religious schools, now Education Commissioner Deena Bishop and Rep.
Johnson are leading the charge to change state law and permanently disfigure the way we do public education in Alaska for their voucher scheme.
In her column, Ms. Taylor praised efforts to change state law to allow money to flow to private and religious institutions in 2014. Diverting public funds to private and religious schools is explicitly prohibited by the Alaska State Constitution. Yet that is precisely what Johnson’s Rules Committee bill would do.
Rather than try to undermine public schools with unconstitutional vouchers, the Legislature should get back on the bipartisan track it was on with SB 140.
Restoring education funding that has been cut over the last decade and modernizing school internet infrastructure is the right thing to do.
I am a 58-year resident of Alaska, a retired 28-year public school teacher, and I am hoping the full House of Representatives restores the intent of SB 140 to support Alaska public schools.
— Marilyn Pillifant
Anchorage
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