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Minority Chooses Political Clout Over Education Funding

(JUNEAU) - Alaskans have been hearing for months about how the Senate minority has placed funding for education as the far and away "top priority" this session, unfortunately when it came down to it they choose political rancor over an additional $12 million increase for K-12 education.

Sen. Dave Donley and other members of the Republican majority worked on a way to reasonably increase education funding to inflation-proof K-12 support.

"The Senate Republicans showed a true commitment to education, while the Minority showed they share the governor's vision of trying to keep the Republican Majority in a box," said Donley. "Even if they have to deprive our children increased education funding to do it."

During a press conference following the budget debate minority senators gave a wide and conflicting range of reasons for pulling their support for the amendment compromise to increase K-12 funding by an additional $12 million:

1. They claimed it was not fair to rural Alaska because it would be distributed by "Average Daily Membership (ADM)," rather than an "Adjusted Average Daily Membership (AADM)." What they failed to explain is that funding, such as this increase, which comes from the "Learning Opportunity Grants," has always been distributed on the straight ADM formula.
2. One rural Senator claims his school district would have lost $450,000 of increased funding under the majority's amendment compromise, when in fact his school district, the Lower Kuskokwim School District, would have received an increase of $987,000. By voting against the amendment compromise, this Senator's school district will not only not see this increase, the Senator cost his district almost $350,000. Likewise the Anchorage minority senators including the Senate Minority Leader lost an opportunity to provide the Anchorage School District more than $4.5 million in additional funding this year. But they continue to claim education is their top priority.
3. The Senate minority leader went so far in their press conference to admit they introduced the amendment for increased education funding simply as a political weapon: "We didn't think it (the amendment for educational funding increase) was real in terms of negotiations with the House," said Sen. Johnny Ellis. "The House Republicans have not been - and Sen. Donley will point this out to you - quite clearly the House Republicans have not been in favor of significantly increasing public support for public education this year, so we did not believe this was real money going through the process." In other words the minority offered an educational amendment not to help schools better educate our children, but to score election year political points.
4. Since the Senate Finance Committee passed an operating budget last week, the minority engaged in rhetoric about having a budget that falls between the Senate's high numbers and the House's low numbers. The amendment compromise for education funding on the Senate floor would have given the conference committee a range to compromise between the House's $0 and the Senate level of $23 million of increased education spending. Because of the minority's political gamesmanship that range of compromise has been reduced to somewhere between the House's $0 and the Senate majority's $12 million increase.

Alaskans should remember last year, when it was the Senate Finance Committee that sponsored and got passed Senate Bill 174, which increased the "education foundation formula." Yet in their end of session press conference last year the governor and Democrats claimed credit for it.

"I think it is very sad that Democrats feel they have to play these political games," said Health, Education and Social Services chair, Sen. Lyda Green (R-Wasilla). "I hope that at the end of this session, as the Minority and the governor try to claim credit for any educational funding increase, people remember it was the Senate Republicans that supported this increase and the Democrats voted against it."

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