Alaska’s Juneau (KTUU) – By a vote of 38-2 on Thursday night, members of the Alaska House were able to reach a bipartisan agreement on a comprehensive education package.
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat from Anchorage, stated that the bill’s passing resulted from a compromise reached by Senate and House lawmakers on Wednesday night over an amendment offered by Representative Stanley Wright, a Republican from Anchorage.
The measure includes provisions for teacher pay and retention bonuses, charter coordinator establishment and the charter school termination appeal process, greater financing for student transportation, and further support for the Alaska Reads Act’s ongoing implementation.
The major announcement, however, is the $40 million Broadband Access Grant (BAG) funding and the $680 increase to the Base Student Allocation, which will enhance internet access and speeds for Alaskan schools located in rural areas.
The fact that those funds need to be appropriated by Tuesday makes the BAG provision especially urgent.
The House Majority acknowledged in a press release that while the law was not as comprehensive as they had hoped, they had to take their Senate colleagues’ wishes into account.
Speaker of the House Cathy Tilton released a statement saying, “The House has been having some difficult but necessary conversations during the last few days.” “We made the commitment to make education a high priority at the start of the session, and we have fulfilled that pledge. Even though the final bill was not as good as what we had first suggested, I would still classify it as a “qualified” success. There was no room for failure, considering the stakes.
“Major wins,” according to the House Majority, were the preservation of charter schools, more funding for student transportation, and support for the Alaska Reads initiative, which aims to raise reading comprehension among elementary school pupils.
The 40 politicians arrived with varying agendas, according to Representative Craig Johnson, a Republican from Anchorage. Johnson is the chair of the House Rules Committee, which included several other proposals in their version of the measure, including a $300 increase in the BSA and teacher incentives.
Instead of being the art of the ideal, politics is the art of the possible. Finding consensus on a complex problem may often be fairly challenging when there are forty distinct points of view, according to a statement from Johnson. “We were able to push through a significant increase in education funding because of our readiness to collaborate with our minority colleagues and reach a fair agreement. I’ll accept it.