Local educators discuss concerns with Governor

Gov. Sean Parnell came to town last Monday and heard from Petersburg School District teachers and administrators about his education reform bill along with other issues in the education arena.

Sue Hardin, district teacher, was concerned about Senate Joint Resolution 9-a proposed constitutional amendment that would increase state funding for private and religious schools.

"Because in our way of looking at it, all it's doing is taking public money and putting into schools that don't take all students and don't necessarily have the same kind of standards or aren't necessarily going to be held as accountable as the public schools are," Hardin said.

Parnell said the education reform bill he proposed is separate from SJB 9 and increases 'base student allocation' (BSA) by $85 for the upcoming academic year and slight increases during the following two years.

BSA is the prime funding mechanism for public schools that currently provides $5,680 for each student enrolled in a district.

Hardin said she was concerned about the BSA increase not meeting inflation.

"It's kind of a nice gesture but we're not going to be able to keep up," Hardin said. "Any increases that we get are spread pretty thinly. How is that BSA going to be enough?"

Parnell said since he's been in office, the state has increased funding levels for schools overall by more than the rate of inflation.

"Nobody is going to be satisfied with just an inflation adjustment," Parnell said. "It's human nature to always ask for more. There are other pressures out there like diminished federal funding, increasing healthcare costs beyond anything that we have done to cause that."

Parnell said he believes charter school students are part of the public school system but aren't treated equitably and that the state only allows a portion of funding to go to them because people are more concerned about traditional schools.

"If you think creating more vocational tech opportunities is going to take kids away from your school, if you think creating more charter school opportunity is going to take kids away from your school, help me put a number to that and I'll help you get the funding in this BSA increase," Parnell said. "Every piece of legislation is a starting point."

Hardin said she thinks vocational tech schools and similar educational opportunities are helpful but that in many parts of the state those options aren't available. She asked how public funding being diverted to those types of schools help districts like Petersburg.

PSD School Board member John Bringhurst said he sees the value in charter schools and that they benefit from small class sizes and larger offerings but as health care and other costs continue to rise, public schools won't be able to keep up.

"I think as we see the BSA restricted for us we see that we can't replace teachers as they leave and our classrooms get larger and larger and our offerings get smaller and smaller," Bringhurst said. "I think the BSA is an absolute key, or something like that, to keep us solvent."

Parnell said he's proposed paying down unfunded pension liability, a big chunk of the rising costs Bringhurst mentioned.

He also said the State of Alaska shouldn't be held responsible for the rising costs of healthcare associated with federal legislation such as the Affordable Care Act.

The group also discussed technology in the classroom and issues regarding teacher and student evaluations.

At the end of the meeting, Parnell said he would advise the Education Commissioner to come to Petersburg to engage in more discussion.