Legislature(2003 - 2004)
04/03/2003 05:10 PM Senate HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 107-CORRESPONDENCE STUDY
CHAIR FRED DYSON announced SB 107 to be up for consideration.
MR. EDDY JEANS, School Finance Manager, Department of Education
and Early Development (DEED), said he was asked to describe the
cost savings of this bill, which come mainly from eliminating
the Alyeska Central School (ACS) as funded through the
foundation program. No other school district in the state is
authorized to receive state funding for summer school programs.
Other school districts operate summer school programs through
learning opportunity grants and other sources of funding.
Another possible savings of $369,000 is not reflected in any of
the fiscal notes, but could be realized from relinquishing space
leased in the Goldbelt Building for ACS. It is not included in
this bill, because he didn't know the state's intentions in
terms of using that space for some other program.
He informed them that ACS had been around since 1939. However,
approximately seven years ago the state made a policy decision
to allow school districts to operate statewide correspondence
programs and 11 of those came into existence.
The reason the state has operated a correspondence program since
1939 is because many people didn't have access to public schools
or school districts. In 1997, Alaska went from state operated
schools to 53 school districts that cover the entire state and
Rural Education Attendance Areas (REAA).
TAPE 03-15, SIDE B
MR. JEANS explained that school districts are charged with
educating every resident who resides within their district
boundaries. This is a substantial change from when ACS was
created in 1939. Approximately 814 students are currently being
served through the Alyeska Central School. Of that number, 686
(roughly 85 percent) of them reside in the largest school
districts - Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kenai,
Kodiak, Mat-Su and Petersburg. Approximately 45 to 50 students
are educated through the Alyeska Central School who do not have
daily access to some educational program. The school districts
that those people reside in do have a statutory obligation to
provide some educational program for those kids.
However, ACS is the only accredited correspondence program in
the state. Four school districts have applied for accreditation
and have "conditional" accreditation while they go through the
process. He understands that while they go through the process,
the units of work that are earned are transferable and are
considered accredited units.
Another important concern is that section 6 doesn't deal
specifically with ACS. It reverses the foundation program in AS
14.17.430 that deals with correspondence study and its 80
percent funding. He said other programs in the state would say
they are not correspondence programs that they are home school
programs - schools without walls, but the statute doesn't
address that type of program. Therefore, he suggested an
amendment to expand the definition from "correspondence program"
to "correspondence study and similar programs". He said the
department feels very strongly that the size adjustment table in
the foundation program was intended for brick and mortar schools
and not for something that falls outside of that category. So,
DEED has proposed this amendment that deals with programs that
occur primarily outside of school facilities.
SENATOR GRETCHEN GUESS asked a funding question that was
indiscernible on the tape, but she was referring to the range of
80-100 percent.
MR. JEANS replied that DEED hasn't tried to calculate that
because it depends on what school the student is enrolled in.
SENATOR GUESS said she would let the Finance Committee deal with
it and asked how the department plans to fulfill its obligation
to students who live in communities of up to 25 people and
aren't in a major district.
MR. JEANS replied that the school districts have the obligation
to provide an educational program.
SENATOR GUESS asked if a district is still obligated to fund a
school with fewer than 10 students in a facility.
MR. JEANS replied the school districts have to provide some form
of an educational program or assist those children in finding an
educational program.
SENATOR GUESS said she didn't want to take up the public's time
with her questions, but she had a list of concerns. The most
interesting thing in the governor's letter was the word
"duplicative," as well as classes, education approach, meeting
with teachers, part-time students, can you call the teacher,
year-round, standards-based, and accreditation. She commented:
If all of those are in another program, if you're
going to say this is a duplicative service, then you
really have to say it's the same service somewhere
else versus different services. So, I am interested in
that. And I do, for the record, Mr. Chairman, I think
the accreditation issue is the issue along with
parental choice and some others. Having one be on a
list, maybe, for accreditation, I think, is
inappropriate to refer to that as an okay choice. We
need to offer people an accredited program...
MS. NANCY WLADYKA, Sitka resident, said that cash rebates are a
highly successful advertising gimmick. More and more parents are
opting to home school their children because local schools do
not meet their children's needs. Correspondence programs offer
cash allotments and the higher the allotment, the higher the
enrollment figures are, but the issue of whether that allotment
is adequate to allow the parent to purchase educational
materials needs to be addressed. She maintained:
Alyeska Central School offers academic excellence. It
exemplifies the No Child Left Behind mandate. No child
can slip through the cracks at ACS because the
teachers make certain of that. They require
accountability. ACS offers choices approved in
curriculum materials and verify that those materials
are appropriate for your child. ACS provides more than
books, it provides daily lesson plans, which ACS
teachers write themselves and constantly review and
update. I cannot stress the importance of having these
lesson plans to use.... ACS has a proven track record
and is an Alaska success story. If the governor knew
what Alyeska Central School does for the children of
Alaska, it would be receiving recognition awards and
accolades and this absurd proposal to close it would
appall legislators. A comparable program does not
exist. There are and always will be children for whom
ACS is an irreplaceable and essential service. Please
don't leave Alaskan children stranded.
MS. PAULA WILLIAMS opposed SB 107 for the same reasons Ms.
Wladyka stated. She added that this bill doesn't save money for
the state, but for the closing of the summer school. For 3,450
students across the state last year, ACS's summer school was
their only option. She opined, "You're not just saving $1.2
million, you're closing the door to these students."
MS. WILLIAMS said that some students use ACS to accelerate their
program. She accused the legislature of following a political
agenda.
MS. NANCY RICHAR opposed SB 107. Her son recently graduated from
ACS after attending since kindergarten. He was her fifth child.
She has experienced both public and rural correspondence schools
in the past and they were nightmares at times. She said there is
no comparison. She told members:
I called the Mat-Su Borough last week to see if they
had been approved. They have been closed to new school
students most of the year; they continue to order
their courses all from out of state [indisc]. They
have no knowledge of the Academic [indisc.] Leadership
Conference or state and national [indisc.] programs,
all of which ACS has attended for years. She was told
that if a student enrolled after the November 1 cut-
off date, the parents had to pay the $250 fee for each
course ordered. She called Mat-Su and was emphatically
told they are not a correspondence school; they help
parents order courses direct from publishers with an
allotment and the parents are the only teacher
involved in the education. These education dollars are
all going out of state.
DR. KATHY TODD said she also wanted to testify against SB 107.
She has an 8th grader and an 11th grader and has needed
correspondence courses to supplement the curriculum in her small
school district. The states of Nebraska, North Dakota,
Washington and Florida and many more consider that they have the
need for a central correspondence or on-line school to
supplement their curricula. They believe that their schools
can't offer all of the things that need to be offered. This is
the kind of school that will help the No-Child-Left-Behind
mandate be successful.
MS. VICTORIA MARTIN said she has lived in Alaska since 1946 and
educated her children through ACS and is now educating her
grandchildren through it. She spoke very highly of the program.
She said that accreditation is a very important issue.
MR. SEAN RUDDELL, ACS student, opposed SB 107. His testimony was
indiscernible.
MS. HALEY RUDDELL, ACS student, said ACS is the only
correspondence program that is accredited and students need to
go to an accredited school in order to get into college because
the credits are not valid otherwise.
MS. JENNIFER WILCOX, ACS student, opposed closing the school for
two reasons, the first being that the alternative schools are
not equal to ACS. Second, eliminating ACS would not save the
state money. Alternative schools are understaffed and lack
accreditation. It will take up to five years before many schools
receive their accreditation. There is also the issue of the
computer-based after school program, which is not an option for
her, because she doesn't want to sit in front of the computer
that much.
MS. WILCOX said it costs the state $3,220 to educate an ACS
student and if she were to enroll in the public school, it would
cost the state $10,992, a $7,772 increase. She summarized that
she hoped they didn't close the school.
MS. LAURELL CLOUGH said she is a retired public school teacher
and supports the public schools and Alyeska. Two sons are
currently with Alyeska part-time. People home school for a
variety of reasons, she said. Every student is not a fit for
every place. Her oldest son is disabled and cannot function full
time in a public school. She stated, "Alyeska has saved him."
She didn't see how eliminating ACS would save the state any
money and its services are not duplicated anywhere. She thought
there might be some secret somewhere about why ACS was to be
closed, because no one has testified in favor of that.
MR. JOHN PADEN, ACS Counselor, opposed SB 107 for the same
reasons already stated. He said that ACS provides summer school
at the request of the Legislature each year. If they want to
save money, they can cut summer school, but that wouldn't affect
ACS's year-round program. Summer school affects kids around the
state who are already in other schools; it allows them to take
one or two courses that they may need to graduate in spring
instead of holding over until the fall and taking another year
to graduate. He summarized that there is no significant savings
in the regular program; there is no genuine duplication of
services; and this is bad policy in light of the service being
rendered to students in this state.
MS. CECILIA MILLER, ACS math and technology teacher, opposed SB
107. She said she had some students that wouldn't be testifying
today because they live in very remote areas - the exact reason
ACS was started. They don't have access to a local school. They
depend on ACS being mandated by the state as an accredited
option. Each year the districts get the choice of putting in a
statewide correspondence program application. Last year there
were 12 schools on the list; two of them are not on the list any
more having chosen not to do it. Another one of those schools
decided to do K-8. She also has a high school student who lives
outside of Kodiak who sent her a letter that she read into the
record. It basically said that he lived in rural Kodiak and
didn't have a phone. The only real communication he had with
teachers was through the mail with ACS.
MS. MILLER noted that ACS has more students than 35 school
districts in the state. Many of the school's children are
looking to the Legislature to give them something they can
depend on.
MS. JEANNE FOY, ACS teacher, said that assessment of student
work is part of a teacher's job that families will have to do if
ACS is closed. Some families are happy with the stipend they get
and don't want interaction with a teacher, but many of them
choose to use ACS; they want the accountability, the courses and
the instruction that the school provides. Some of her students
have no access to a local school, but they are smart and plan to
go to college. She has been able to help them get the skills
they need in order to succeed in college. She also teaches
advanced placement English literature over the Internet and one
of her students has e-mail because the Internet is way too
expensive for her family. The advantage to having the
correspondence teachers here in Alaska is that they can work
with a student to make any modifications necessary for their
particular situation.
MS. KATIE BOUSLER said that her daughter, Kaitlin, is a
sophomore at Juneau Douglas High School and she is an exchange
student in Bern, Switzerland. She has received numerous academic
opportunities and she would not have been able to study abroad
this year nor have such an impressive resume' without the
existence of Alyeska Central School. Like many Alaskan students,
she is able to get credit for her courses in Switzerland through
ACS and then transfer them to Juneau Douglas High School. She
could not do that directly through the regular high school. She
told members:
ACS is the only accredited school in the state through
which this is possible. I urge you not to pass this
legislation and preserve unique opportunities for
future Alaskan leaders like my daughter, Kaitlin.
MS. ARAN FELIX, ACS teacher, asked the Legislature to consider
the disruption this bill is causing her students while their
fate is being considered. Many are traveling and like Kaitlin,
some of them do not start school on September 1 like a lot of
schools; and some students study at a slower pace. If people
want to look at boarding schools, Mt. Edgecumbe's closing date
for application was March 31. Many students and parents have
testified that they have been unable to find a statewide program
similar to ACS where graduates can finish up from January
through December. The only students who will have it easy are
the ones who return to their local schools, which will cost the
state more money. She mentioned a parent who called yesterday
who wanted to enroll her two children. The parent had just
purchased a home and moved to Edna Bay. Shortly thereafter,
their local school closed and ACS was recommended. Their local
school district is struggling to create a correspondence
program.
MS. SHAWNA THOMPSON, ACS student, said it is a really good
program and it would be wonderful if they kept it open.
MS. KYM WOLCOTT read a letter from an ACS student who loved the
school and opposed SB 107.
An unidentified woman said that closing Alyeska School was a
step in the wrong direction. The school is not a duplication of
other services. If high school kids need courses outside of the
core curriculum, there is no way to get them without going to
ACS.
MR. MIKE JEFFERY said he is in favor of keeping Alyeska Central
School going, but he didn't have any objections to opening
funding up to the other schools. He said the accreditation issue
is very important and college admission officers know that. His
daughter had been admitted to Stanford and several East Coast
schools and he attributed that to the extremely high quality of
education at Alyeska. That could not have been done locally in a
town like Barrow.
MS. GAYLE GOEDDE, ACS teacher, said that no other program
provides the teaching services that ACS does. She works with
children who are failing in the regular school system and they
blossom with her help at ACS. She has many students who write
her letters of thanks saying that they learned so much in her
class and that she gave them the courage to go on.
TAPE 03-16, SIDE A
MS. GOEDDE said she gives her students feedback on their writing
and gives them support that is different than other programs
where the parents grade the work.
CHAIR DYSON thanked her for her testimony and for the good job
she had done with those students.
MR. KEVIN SWEENEY, Special Assistant to the Commissioner,
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), said that
regarding the bill, three decisions need to be made. The first
question is it will translate into a real money savings and the
department feels it can easily identify $1.2 million in savings
from closing the summer school. In addition, the facility
savings would amount to about $370,000.
Regarding the argument that a lot of the kids would not go into
other correspondence programs and enroll in their home school
instead, MR. SWEENEY said, "Most of the students who chose this
curriculum and chose the correspondence type program do it
because it's where they sort of can flourish and that's the type
of program they want...." He noted that other correspondence
programs in the state are funded at 80 percent no matter where
they are.
MR. SWEENEY said as far as curriculum is concerned, the
department's intent when ACS closes is to make ACS's curriculum
available to all districts in the state. They can also be
utilized in other state-run and district-run correspondence
programs. Right now the Alaska On Line Consortium, which is made
up of ACS, Mat-Su, Kenai and Delta, is developing curricula.
DEED wants to help the districts continue to grow the programs
that are being offered. Enrollment in the district-run statewide
correspondence schools has grown tremendously since 1997 while
enrollment in the regular program at ACS has gone down. That
brings him to the third point - that this is a policy call. The
question is should the state continue to be in a state-run
correspondence school business. He told members:
We believe, and the governor believes now, that other
programs are being offered, that it's time for the
state to get out of this business and to allow the
districts to operate the state-run correspondence
program.
6:50 p.m.
SENATOR WILKEN asked him to explain the other state run
programs.
MR. SWEENEY replied that he may have misspoken and he meant
other statewide correspondence programs.
SENATOR WILKEN asked how many of the school districts chose to
operate summer schools with their [indisc.] money. Someone
responded that Mat-Su did and Senator Wilken added that
Fairbanks did, too.
SENATOR WILKEN asked what the relationship is between
accreditation and a diploma and/or the high school qualifying
exam.
MR. JEANS replied that accreditation provides an assurance to
the receiving school district that the course work the students
have completed is of the same standard level when measured by
the Northwest accreditation of schools and colleges. When a
child transfers from ACS to Juneau Douglas High School, for
instance, their staff has assurance that whatever those grades
are on the transcripts for courses are of like courses that
would be offered at their school.
SENATOR WILKEN asked if accreditation has any bearing on a
diploma or the qualifying exam.
MR. JEANS replied that it does not.
SENATOR WILKEN said a couple of years ago some districts did an
audit of some of the statewide programs and one of the measures
used was the teacher to student ratio, which was 800 to 1. He
asked if there was a similar measurement of the other statewide
programs versus Alyeska Central School.
MR. JEANS replied that many of the existing programs do not have
the same student pupil teacher ratio that ACS currently has, but
a number of school districts have assured him that they want to
expand their programs to offer like pupil teacher ratios that
ACS is currently offering. The legislation has an open
enrollment policy requirement for any district that operates a
statewide correspondence program. So, those districts that are
currently closing their enrollment would have to comply. It
would be the department's intent that that would at least apply
through the foundation count period.
SENATOR WILKEN said some statewide programs can decline to take
a disabled student and asked if that will be changed in this
legislation.
MR. JEANS replied that a school district cannot discriminate on
the enrollment of a child because of special needs.
SENATOR WILKEN asked if a statewide correspondence program can
discriminate.
MR. JEANS replied that a statewide correspondence program is
operated by a school district and cannot discriminate on that
basis.
SENATOR WILKEN asked if the department would follow up on that
if such an incident had happened.
MR. JEANS replied that it would.
SENATOR WILKEN said he would get that information to him
tomorrow. He then asked if that issue is addressed in this
legislation.
MR. JEANS replied that it is on page 1, section 2, but an
amendment is necessary because another provision in statute
specifically refers to regional education attendance areas with
similar wording. Line 14 says, "a school age child who is
enrolled in or a resident of the district...". The department
has interpreted that to mean [a district] has to have an open
enrollment in policy, at least through the foundation count
period.
SENATOR WILKEN said Mr. Sweeney spoke of the tremendous growth
of correspondence students from 2,000 to 9,000 in eight years.
Mr. Sweeney indicated that was correct. Senator Wilken asked him
to rethink his suggestion of closing the school and asked if
there would there be a real savings of $375,000 if it moved out
of the facility. He thought there would be a savings to DEED but
someone else would have to pick up the tab on that space. He
noted, "There really is no savings."
CHAIR DYSON followed up that there might be a net savings if
that precludes them from having to go out and rent some other
space. Mr. Sweeney indicated that's what he meant.
SENATOR BETTYE DAVIS said that some schools are not accredited
and that might cause some problems for the students. However,
she knows from serving on the State Board and visiting school
districts that students are graduating from those schools all
the time.
MR. JEANS replied that the provision they are referring to is
section 6. He used the example of a Family Partnership Charter
School in Anchorage and explained:
In their charter, they clearly state that they are a
home-based school program. Because the statute
currently does not state correspondence or home-based
programs, they have continued to appeal our
classification of them for funding purposes as a
correspondence program. They want to go through the
school size adjustment table and receive that
additional funding for what we provide for staffing,
heating, maintaining a school facility, as well as a
20% adjustment for special needs. This provision here
is simply put in, as a clarification that we're
referring to any program that provides educational
services outside a public school facility - will be
funded at the 80%.
SENATOR DAVIS responded that she understood that very well, but
[accreditation] needs to be taken care of and not necessarily in
this bill. She was talking about programs like alternative or
charter schools and wanted to know if those children would run
into any problems getting into another school because of lack of
accreditation.
MR. JEANS replied that it depends on where the students are
going. Colleges have assessment tools other than high school
transcripts available to them from an accredited or non-
accredited school to determine whether a child is ready to enter
college.
SENATOR DAVIS responded that she did not want students to have
problems getting into colleges of their choice because of high
school accreditation and that should be addressed.
CHAIR DYSON said that very few students have trouble getting
into college, no matter where they went to school.
SENATOR GUESS said she respectfully disagrees and that in her
work, higher education does mean something. She noted:
I think children at least need to know when they're
not in an accredited program the limits it puts on
certain options that they have including the military,
which I think is a serious issue.
SENATOR GUESS asked about the focus and breadth of the summer
school programs that Senator Wilken mentioned are going on in
the state. She questioned if, after the October open enrollment
count, a parent called up a program district correspondence
program, the student could be denied entry.
MR. JEANS replied that has been occurring and it is an issue
with the department right now.
SENATOR GUESS said she was confused and thought he said that was
solved in the bill.
MR. JEANS replied:
The department's position on that is when a person
moves into Alaska, they have the right to attend a
public school in the community in which they move in
to. If you want to enter into a statewide
correspondence program under these provisions, it
would require you to do that prior to the end of the
count period. It does not leave that avenue available
to you to enroll after the count period in any
statewide correspondence program that you want.
Alyeska does do that for some students based on
whatever their conditions may be and you can ask their
counselor or any of the other people in here. They
don't simply allow all students to enroll after the
count period. Alyeska has some limitations on their
enrollment policy as well, but what this statute does
is afford the people the opportunity, at least through
the count period.
SENATOR GUESS thanked him and asked what happens if the fat
[funding] of every district that has correspondence school goes
away. The bill does not address that issue if there isn't a
statewide correspondence program. She asked Mr. Jeans to point
out the provisions that the department has set out in that case.
MR. JEANS replied that she is correct about the bill not
addressing that subject. He couldn't say that the department has
a plan set in stone that it can hand her. He added, "We don't
believe that's going to happen."
He said that enrollment in correspondence programs, in general,
has leveled off in the last three years. DEED sees movement
between districts and between programs. Some districts, like
Kenai and Mat-Su, operate district programs that had declined
for a couple of years and are now taking off again. The reason
is the districts realized the need to modify the programs they
were offering because they weren't meeting the needs of their
children - and they wanted to get their children back into their
school districts.
SENATOR GUESS wanted to know if that's a constitutional problem,
regardless of what he thinks will happen. She is concerned this
bill could get through the whole system and be signed into law
even though it does not have an accreditation provision in it.
MR. JEANS responded that Alaska has 53 school districts that
cover every square mile. Each school district has the obligation
to provide some form of educational program to the students who
reside in its district. He acknowledged, "Even if all the
statewide correspondence programs go away, the districts still
have an obligation to provide educational services of some
form."
CHAIR DYSON added that the state is mandated under the
Constitution to provide education for everyone. He believes very
strongly that if the district-based programs weren't working,
recreating something like Alyeska Central School would be
mandated.
SENATOR GREEN moved to pass SB 107 from committee with
individual recommendations and its accompanying fiscal note.
SENATOR DAVIS objected.
A roll call vote was taken. SENATORS GREEN, WILKEN, and DYSON
voted yea; SENATORS GUESS and DAVIS voted nay and SB 107 passed
from committee.
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