02/22/2012 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB170|| SB199 | |
| Adjourn |
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 170 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | SB 199 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 22, 2012
8:02 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Kevin Meyer, Co-Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Co-Chair
Senator Bettye Davis, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
Senator Gary Stevens
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Senator Cathy Giessel
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 170
"An Act requiring vocational education counseling in public
schools."
- MOVED SB 170 OUT OF COMMITTEE
SENATE BILL NO. 199
"An Act relating to the vocational and technical instruction
funding factor for public school funding."
- MOVED SB 199 OUT OF COMMITTEE
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SB 170
SHORT TITLE: VOCATIONAL ED. COUNSELING IN SCHOOLS
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) THOMAS
01/20/12 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/20/12 (S) EDC, FIN
02/10/12 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
02/10/12 (S) Scheduled But Not Heard
02/13/12 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
02/13/12 (S) Scheduled But Not Heard
02/22/12 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
BILL: SB 199
SHORT TITLE: VOCATIONAL EDUCATION FUNDING FACTOR
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) MEYER
02/17/12 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/17/12 (S) EDC, L&C
02/22/12 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
WITNESS REGISTER
MURRAY RICHMOND, Staff
Senator Joe Thomas
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced SB 170 on behalf of the sponsor.
EDRA MORLEDGE
Staff for Senator Kevin Meyer
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced SB 199 on behalf of the sponsor.
CAROL COMEAU, Superintendent
Anchorage School District
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 170 and SB 199.
RICK RIOS, Director
Career and Technology Education
Anchorage School District
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 170 and SB 199.
BARBARA HUFF-TUCKNESS, Director
Governmental and Legislative Affairs
General Teamsters Local 959
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 170 and SB 199.
LES MORSE, Deputy Director
Department of Education and Early Development
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions related to SB 170 and SB
199.
CYNTHIA CURRAN, Director
Division of Teaching and Learning Support
Department of Education and Early Development
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions related to SB 170 and SB
199.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:02:22 AM
CO-CHAIR KEVIN MEYER called the Senate Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:02 a.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators French, Stevens, Co-Chair Thomas and Co-
Chair Meyer.
SB 170-VOCATIONAL ED. COUNSELING IN SCHOOLS
SB 199-VOCATIONAL EDUCATION FUNDING FACTOR
8:03:05 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER announced the consideration of SB 170 and SB 199
and stated that public testimony was open on both bills. Mr.
Richmond would introduce SB 170 and Ms. Morledge would introduce
SB 199.
MURRAY RICHMOND, staff for Senator Joe Thomas, Alaska State
Legislature and co-aide to the Senate Education Standing
Committee, said most schools in the state offered some kind of
vocational counseling and SB 170 would extend vocational
counseling down to middle school for every school in the state.
He said minimum vocational counseling would occur in the
seventh, ninth and eleventh grades. He said studies had shown
that the seventh grade was an ideal time to introduce counseling
when students start making career choices. He said ninth grade
was generally the first year of high school and guidance was
important to tie needed curriculum with career choices. He said
eleventh grade students are preparing to graduate and counseling
addressed the final courses required for vocational or post-
secondary education.
He said Section 1 in SB 170 addressed duties of the Department
of Education and Early Development (DEED) and included a
paragraph that insures the delivery of Vocational Education
Training Counseling (VETC) under AS 14.14.090.
8:06:35 AM
MR. RICHMOND said Section 2 outlined the duties of a school
district and noted that DEED would provide assistance if a
district was unable to provide VETC. He said a district that was
providing a comprehensive VETC could continue their program.
8:07:24 AM
SENATOR DAVIS joined the meeting.
MR. RICHMOND said a Columbia University study concluded that
minimum VETC intervention was a very effective tool, especially
in middle school.
8:08:29 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS commented that students tend to have an
inaccurate idea of what was required academically for particular
occupations. He said VETC would have a substantial impact on the
ability of students to better understand the occupation they
were considering and the course track required.
MR. RICHMOND replied that he agreed. He noted the importance of
starting students on the right track and VETC would provide the
impetus.
CO-CHAIR MEYER commented that he participated in the recent
Mayor's Education Summit in Anchorage. He noted Samuel E.
Abrams' presentation on Finland's education system. He said
Finnish students made their career choices by ninth grade and
their graduation rate was nearly 100 percent. He expressed
appreciation that Senator Thomas brought SB 170 forward.
8:11:50 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked Ms. Morledge to introduce SB 199.
8:12:02 AM
EDRA MORLEDGE, staff to Senator Kevin Meyer, Alaska State
Legislature, and co-aide to the Senate Education Standing
Committee, said SB 199 would open up the vocational education
funding factor that was built into the Base Student Allocation
(BSA) with SB 84. She said a 1.01 percent vocational education
funding factor was included into the foundation formula for
vocational educational programs for students in ninth through
twelfth grade. She said many school districts had expressed a
desire to expand the VETC program to middle school students.
She said research indicated that middle school was the optimal
age to introduce career and technical education programs. She
said VETC would help to engage students at an earlier age and
capture more students who were losing interest in their
education by high school. She said districts would have more
flexibility in how they develop and deliver programs by
including seventh and eighth grades.
She said SB 199 would simply change the name of the high school
vocational and technical instruction funding factor to secondary
school vocational and technical and technical instruction
funding factor. She said the name change was the key language
that would open it up to the seventh and eighth grades as Alaska
statues defined secondary schools as seventh through twelfth
grades. She said SB 199 would replace the language that allowed
the use of the funding from students enrolled in ninth through
twelfth grades to students enrolled in a secondary school.
8:14:03 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS highlighted that SB 170 and SB 199 had zero
fiscal notes.
CO-CHAIR MEYER inquired why SB 170 received a Finance Committee
referral and SB 199 received a Labor and Commerce Committee
referral.
SENATOR DAVIS commented that she liked the changes made in SB
199.
8:15:25 AM
CAROL COMEAU, Superintendent, Anchorage School District, said SB
199 would provide more flexibility for middle school students.
She said the Anchorage School District (ASD) had tremendous
success the last couple of years with middle school career
guides. She noted that prior testimony on VETC at earlier ages
was correct. She said VETC provided earlier discussions with
students regarding long term thinking about careers and courses
required to achieve their goals.
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked if there was increased demand for VETC from
parents and students.
MS. COMEAU answered yes. She said VETC had become a major
priority with ASD's school board as they addressed dropout
rates, graduation rates and how to better engage students to
keep them interested in school. She noted that Samuel E. Abrams
from the Mayor's Education Summit visited a number of ASD
schools and was intrigued with the added Career and Technical
Education (CTE) courses in addition to the initiation of career
pathways in middle school. She said ASD's comprehensive VETC has
led to enthusiastic students and noted that VETC advisory
committees had been beneficial to its success.
8:18:54 AM
RICK RIOS, Director, Career and Technology Education, Anchorage
School District, noted that President Obama's recent State of
the Union Address emphasized education, technical skills and
jobs. He said that last year the Alaska State Legislature
supported career and technical education by passing SB 84. He
said the investment made by the state did not reach all of the
students who desperately need career information and SB 199
would allow that to happen.
8:21:50 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked if there was a plan to track of the
successes.
MR. RIOS answered no.
8:23:47 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked how prepared rural districts were to take
on VETC.
MR. RIOS answered that he could not answer for the rural school
districts. He said he communicated with rural schools as a CTE
cohort coordinator and noted they had to deal with added issues
regarding fuel and staffing. He said the state's CTE plan was a
good plan and following in whatever capacity would make it
possible for rural school districts to be more successful than
administrating independent procedures.
CO-CHAIR MEYER commented that his goal was to not lose students
who may drop out of school due to a lack of interest in their
current career options. He said he wanted to make sure that all
kids would have an opportunity for VETC.
MR. RIOS responded that a district would have to address local
economics and opportunities to keep people at home prior to
developing a CTE plan.
8:26:56 AM
BARBARA HUFF TUCKNESS, Director, Governmental and Legislative
Affairs, General Teamsters Local 959, Anchorage, said students
would be more successful with additional educational tools. She
noted that more high school graduates required remedial
mathematics education when attending vocational school and
having students focus earlier on their careers was beneficial.
8:30:40 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked if her son knew he had an interest in
vocational education by middle school.
MS. HUFF TUCKNESS answered that her son did not have vocational
and technical opportunities in high school.
CO-CHAIR MEYER asked if there was an educational void prior to
vocational and technical training.
MS. HUFF TUCKNESS answered yes. She said assuring that students
graduated from high school with basic education tool sets was
important.
8:33:55 AM
LES MORSE, Deputy Director, Department of Education and Early
Development, Juneau, said SB 199 expressed the intent of the
legislature to provide some expansion of how the vocational and
technical education funding was intended to be spent. He said
funding was spent discretionarily, but districts were trying to
be true to the intent of the legislature. He said DEED has no
problem with SB 199 and believed it was good legislation that
would support schools.
8:35:20 AM
CYNTHIA CURRAN, Director, Division of Teaching and Learning
Support, Department of Education and Early Development, Juneau,
said Mr. Rios referred to the CTE plan that insured every
student received a personal learning and career plan. She said
SB 170 would help to move the CTE strategy down to middle school
students. She said the Department of Labor and Workforce
Development in addition to the State Library System offered a
number of free career development resources to all Alaskans.
8:37:39 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER closed public testimony on SB 170 and SB 199.
Finding no further questions or committee discussion, he
solicited separate motions to move the bills.
8:38:13 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS moved to report SB 170 from the committee with
individual recommendations and attached zero fiscal note(s).
CO-CHAIR MEYER announced that without objection, SB 170 moved
from the Senate Education Committee.
8:38:29 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS moved to report SB 199 from committee with
individual recommendations and attached zero fiscal note(s).
8:38:39 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced that without objection, SB 199 moved
from the Senate Education Standing Committee.
CO-CHAIR MEYER noted that SB 170 and SB 199 may merge at some
point.
8:40:50 AM
CO-CHAIR MEYER introduced a visiting group of students from
rural Alaska.
8:43:30 AM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Co-Chair Meyer adjourned the Senate Education Standing Committee
meeting at 8:43 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsor Statement SB 199.pdf |
SEDC 2/22/2012 8:00:00 AM |
SB 199 |
| SB 199 Support Letter - Altenhof.pdf |
SEDC 2/22/2012 8:00:00 AM |
SB 199 |
| Kodiak Daily Mirror Article.pdf |
SEDC 2/22/2012 8:00:00 AM |
SB 199 Kodiak Daily Mirror Article |
| SB 199 Where Did the Money Go.pdf |
SEDC 2/22/2012 8:00:00 AM |
SB 199 - Where Did The Money Go - Report |
| SB170-EED-TLS-2-9-12.pdf |
SEDC 2/22/2012 8:00:00 AM |
SB 170 |
| SB 170 Sponsor Statement.pdf |
SEDC 2/22/2012 8:00:00 AM |
SB 170 |
| SB 170 School Based Career Development.pdf |
SEDC 2/22/2012 8:00:00 AM |
|
| SB199_EED-ESS-2-17-2012.pdf |
SEDC 2/22/2012 8:00:00 AM |
SB 199 |