Education

Alaska Senate proposal deepens education cuts

JUNEAU -- The state's Department of Education and Early Development will likely face the steepest cuts of any department, said Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, a key player in education policy in the Alaska Senate.

Dunleavy chairs both the policy-setting Senate Education Committee and the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee's subcommittee handling the department's budget.

That subcommittee on Friday produced a budget proposal calling for $15.5 million less for the department than last year and cuts larger than the House of Representatives made earlier.

But Dunleavy said the cuts were in areas that weren't part of the state's core mission of K-12 education and didn't change the foundation formula, the per-student calculation amount the state gives to local school districts.

The budget proposal "keeps the harm as far away as possible from children," he said. "Nowhere in this budget was the foundation formula touched."

But the budget cuts too far into pre-kindergarten and eliminates some programs that aim to help the children who need it the most, said a Democratic member of the committee, Sen. Berta Gardner of Anchorage.

"You only get one chance to be a 4-year-old" and enter school prepared to learn, she said.

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During the last week, budget subcommittees of the Senate Finance Committee have taken the operating budget proposed by Gov. Bill Walker, along with the budget passed just a few weeks ago by the House of Representatives, and have been developing their own proposed budgets.

The full Senate Finance Committee Monday will begin holding public hearings on the proposed budget numbers just adopted. It is then expected to approve the budget in time for a vote by the full Senate by Thursday or Friday, Senate leaders say.

The subcommittee's budget cuts about 12 percent in state funds from the budget adopted last year, but because most of the department's budget comes from federal funds, the overall cut was only 4 percent.

Dunleavy emphasized during the subcommittee meeting looking at the Education Department that what it produced was only a proposal, not the final amount that schools would get.

"The public now knows what we're looking at in terms of a budget," he said.

Dunleavy urged people who want to see different budget numbers to weigh in with their elected leaders.

"Get your view of these cuts, these reductions, across to your senators," he said.

Among the programs cut in the Senate proposal are the Statewide Literacy program, the Southeast Regional Resource Center's STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program, the Alaska Learning Network, the Coaches Mentor program, $5 million in broadband assistance for rural schools, the Parents-as-Teachers program, $2 million in pre-K grants, the Best Beginnings program, the Online With Libraries program and the Live Homework Help program. Several other programs received cuts but were not eliminated.

Also on the chopping block is a new boarding school program in the Lower Kuskokwim School District and the expansion of one in the Nenana School District. Those programs had just been authorized in recent years but Sheila Peterson, an aide to Dunleavy, told the subcommittee that the current fiscal situation, with a $3.5 billion deficit, means this is a bad time to start new efforts like boarding schools.

"If we're cutting programs that have been in place and have been very valuable, is it now a time to start new ones?" she said.

The third member of the education subcommittee, Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, said the cuts were particularly difficult for her, a former classroom teacher and parent of children in the Anchorage School District.

But the state's primary responsibility is K-12, and she said she supported focusing the cuts elsewhere.

However, Gardner opposed cutting pre-K and said she hoped the budget would be amended later to restore at least some of those cuts.

Not every child needs the extra help before starting school but it should be there for those who do, she said.

"Lots of kids need that help," Gardner said. "I fear the cuts we're doing here will hurt a lot of children as they're just starting out."

Costello agreed the cuts were "heart-wrenching" and said she hoped school districts were watching what the legislators were doing and would step up partnerships with businesses in areas such as reading.

After the Senate Finance Committee and the full Senate then act on the budget, those items on which the House and Senate are not in agreement will go to a conference committee to work out the differences.

Any cuts on which the two bodies initially agree can be considered final because they won't go to a conference committee, and while Gov. Walker has the power to veto budget items, he can't add to the budget passed by the Legislature.

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