What Gov. Bill Walker's administration had in mind as it tried to press middle and high school kids into prepping their parents and communities for taxes and using the Permanent Fund in some fashion to make ends meet, seems clear -- and entirely inappropriate.
It opted to further politicize Alaska's "budget challenge" by trying to get it into Anchorage School District classrooms -- with its own spin, of course. It even provided "educational resources" and a lesson plan as long as three weeks crafted by the University of Alaska's eLearning and Distance Education team, the Alaska Council on Economic Education, the Anchorage School District and West Valley High School teachers.
All that work -- surprise! -- is based on "Alaska's Revenue and Expenditure Model developed earlier this year by the Alaska Department of Revenue," a news release says. That model leans toward the administration's stance that the budget has been slashed to the bare bone. It can even muster a phony poll or two to have you believe the public agrees. It is beyond time, says the official line, to levy taxes and use Permanent Fund earnings or cap its dividends to make ends meet.
"The interactive model helps users understand the state's budget challenge and enables Alaskans to 'solve' the budget gap through a wide array of choices," the news release says. It does all that, mind you, while nudging users toward the preferred solution: new revenues.
Some -- and may I have a hallelujah! -- are not buying in. The administration and its pals are having a problem with recalcitrant legislators, mostly Republicans, who think more cutting should be done before reaching into people's pockets or slicing and dicing anything remotely associated with the Permanent Fund. And there is that pesky election next year. That makes everybody a little antsy.
The problem with the curriculum handed the Anchorage School District? It leans toward one side of the argument and neglects balanced, sustainable plans and ideas offered by people such as Brad Keithley, an oil, gas and fiscal policy consultant who urges repair of the "structural defects in Alaska's current fiscal model" to control the state's boom-or-bust cycles. Or the Institute of Economic Research's Scott Goldsmith, who suggests instituting a percent of market value approach to the Permanent Fund to avoid Alaska's fiscal ups and downs. Or even Alaska Dispatch News owner and publisher Alice Rogoff's idea of leveraging our assets. There are others, but you would never know it from what was offered.
The curriculum is biased toward the administration's union-preservation view of reality; that Alaska already has cut as much as possible, a position approaching tin foil hat country. It ignores the largest items in the government operations budget -- our gold-plated, $1.5 billion Medicaid plan and education spending.
Medicaid, irresponsibly expanded by Walker's fiat even as the state peered into a fiscal abyss, offers 27 optional, unlimited services not offered in other states and has ballooned 250 percent in the last dozen years to eclipse Alaska's K-12 education spending. Together, Medicaid and education spending eventually -- and sooner rather than later -- will outstrip Alaska's income all by themselves. Then what?
To pretend it is time to tax because we have cut all we can by trimming all around Medicaid and education -- $400 million worth last session -- is to ignore that we have not cut much, if anything, from either of those big ticket items. Those bloated sacred cows are stampeding through the budget. Everything should be on the cutting table, a view apparently not shared by the Walker camp.
To avoid that, it clearly attempted to peddle its budget spin to our kids, who then, I suppose, would peddle it to their parents and communities. How much success the effort will have remains to be seen.
The obvious politicization effort caused consternation and concern in some quarters where dragging kids into a nasty fight is seen as bothersome, but ASD Superintendent Ed Graff and Pamela Orme, the district's social studies curriculum coordinator for K-12, say that is not likely to happen. The curriculum has not been adopted and is not required, and possibly would see little use; likely none in its entirety because of its length.
They likened the voluntary familiarization sessions on the curriculum to a "relevant conversation" providing a topical educational opportunity for social studies teachers who may or may not choose to use part of the information for class. Those teachers, they said, also are aware of other sources of information, such as ISER's Goldsmith.
Keithley, for one, urges that the district revamp the curriculum, use Goldsmith's "well-tested model" and seek public comment before heading into the classroom. That seems appropriate.
The Walker administration's "education" effort? Not so much.
Paul Jenkins is editor of the AnchorageDailyPlanet.com, a division of Porcaro Communications.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.