Legislature(1997 - 1998)
04/17/1998 09:10 AM Senate HES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE
April 17, 1998
9:10 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Gary Wilken, Chairman
Senator Loren Leman, Vice-Chairman
Senator Lyda Green
Senator Jerry Ward
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Johnny Ellis
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
HOUSE BILL NO. 367 am
"An Act relating to part-time public school students; and providing
for an effective date."
HEARD AND HELD
PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION
HB 367 am - No previous Senate committee action.
WITNESS REGISTER
Representative Fred Dyson
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau, Alaska 99811-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Sponsor of HB 367
Lisa Torkelson
Staff to Representative Dyson
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau, Alaska 99811-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions regarding HB 367 am
Robert Yahara
P.O. Box 230129
Anchorage, Alaska 99523
POSITION STATEMENT: Supports HB 367 am
Eddy Jeans
Manager, School Finance Section
Department of Education
801 W 10th Street, Suite 200
Juneau, Alaska 99801-1894
POSITION STATEMENT: No stated position on HB 367 am
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 98-35, SIDE A
Number 001
CHAIRMAN WILKEN called the Senate Health, Education and Social
Services (HESS) Committee to order at 9:10 a.m. Present were
Senators Ward, Leman, and Chairman Wilken. The committee took up
HB 367 am. Senator Green arrived at 9:11 a.m.
HB 367 - PART-TIME PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT ENROLLMENT
Representative Fred Dyson, sponsor of HB 367, and Lisa Torkelson,
staff to Representative Dyson, presented HB 367 to the committee as
follows. In some sense, HB 367 is an unnecessary bill. Last year
the Legislature passed a bill prohibiting discrimination against
part-time students. The language in that law provides that part-
time students can only be denied enrollment in a class or other
educational opportunity if full-time students are denied enrollment
on the same basis. The Legislature fully expected that the Alaska
Department of Education (DOE) would change its regulations to
conform with that law. The State Board of Education has calendared
the subject of a regulation change in regard to this issue for its
mid-summer meeting. After the law was enacted, the Anchorage
School Board decided to continue its policy of making part-time
students "go to the back of the line." No other school board has
adopted that same policy. School boards around the state deal with
part-time students with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District has been very
accommodating and the Sitka and Mat-Su School Districts have made
an art form of providing better services to every student in their
districts. HB 367 was introduced to put a hammer on DOE and the
Anchorage School Board. HB 367 tightens up the law and requires
that the regulations be changed to reflect the intent of last
year's bill. The Anchorage School District has approximately
45,000 students; only 94 are part-time, therefore accommodating the
part-time students should not cause any significant impact.
REPRESENTATIVE DYSON discussed a few practical matters raised by
educators. For instance, when a senior needs a class to meet
graduation requirements, that senior should be given priority over
a junior. Last year's bill prohibits discrimination against part-
time students only on the basis that the students are part-time.
School districts have questioned how they will schedule students
without knowing the number of part-time students that will enroll.
The answer is to require part-time students to meet the same
standards as full-time students for early enrollment. In his
district, 25 percent of students are new to the district each year.
District demographers have learned to predict the number of classes
that will be needed, so this problem is largely non-existent. One
school superintendent stated that giving preferential treatment to
full-time students is not discriminatory, i.e., out-of-state
college students pay higher tuition. That argument is contrary to
our responsibility for all children in the state under Alaska's
Constitution.
Number 115
SENATOR LEMAN stated HB 367 am is consistent with the legislative
intent of the measure that passed last year. He noted he is
disappointed that the law was not implemented according to that
intent and he supports this measure.
SENATOR GREEN asked Representative Dyson why language on lines 11
through 13 on page 1, which state that the bill does not pertain to
extracurricular and interscholastic activities, was included.
REPRESENTATIVE DYSON replied when he put the bill together last
year he chose to deal with academics only, as he did not want to
take on the issue of extracurricular activities. He believes the
Constitution makes clear that academics are the State's
responsibility for education, so he thought every school district
could decide its standards for interscholastic and extracurricular
activities. HB 367 was amended on the House floor by the Majority
leader to reinforce that the bill applies to academics only. He
stated he would be delighted if the committee wants to amend the
bill and remove that section.
SENATOR GREEN thought the House floor amendment was unfortunate
because she had introduced legislation a few years ago to provide
home schoolers the opportunity to enroll in after school
activities, and to require consistent policies within districts
regarding enrollment in those activities. She noted Alaska has
strong activity standards but different school districts have
different policies, which she believes is wrong. She stated she
believes any student should be able to participate in
extracurricular activities.
Number 167
MS. TORKELSON commented last year, when the Legislature was dealing
with HB 158, it heard a lot of opposition to the bill because of
the extracurricular activity problem. That concern was a moot
point because the bill did not address extracurricular activities.
Representative Dyson's intent is to take on the issue of academics
first, and then sometime down the road deal with the issue of
extracurricular activities. She explained ASAA, the interscholastic
activity group that each district belongs to, sets the policy on
extracurricular activities.
SENATOR GREEN responded ASAA only has the authority given them by
its member organizations, and it is not a governing body. She
repeated that her main concern is that the extracurricular policy
is inconsistent and arbitrary within districts and throughout the
state.
Number 199
REPRESENTATIVE DYSON said he is very sympathetic to Senator Green's
position but including that position in the bill will enlist a
whole new group of enemies. He stated it is a battle he is willing
to fight but he is not sure that now is the time to do it.
SENATOR GREEN said she would like to address the issue next year.
REPRESENTATIVE DYSON stated it gives some weight to a quasi-
constitutional objection that people have. The objection heard
last year was that if extracurricular activities are included, the
result will be that a church-related school, across the street from
a public high school, can offer what it wants to and then send its
students to the high school to participate in the band, etc. That
arrangement will create a de facto support for a sectarian school
that does not have to spend funds on an interscholastic football
program or other extracurricular activities because it can
"freeload" off of the public schools. REPRESENTATIVE DYSON said
those who support that argument do not think that taxpayers, who
send their children to private schools, should get a tax break on
the school taxes they pay.
Number 222
ROBERT YAHARA testified via teleconference from Anchorage. He
stated he supports HB 367 am and believes that it is important that
part-time students be able to utilize public school facilities. He
did not think it is the intention of home schoolers or church-
related school students to get de facto support for sectarian
schools, but rather to get equal access. All property owners pay
taxes to support the mandated government school system and all
parents want the opportunity to benefit from those taxes. He hopes
the 40,000 young people in the public school system get a good,
moral-based education that will help them to mature and become good
citizens, and to be able to enjoy family relationships and other
important things. He noted this is the first testimony he has
given via teleconference. He thanked the committee and urged them
to support HB 367 am.
CHAIRMAN WILKEN stated he has been surprised to see how much
legislators rely on the teleconference network in Juneau, and
thanked Mr. Yahara for taking the time to testify.
SENATOR LEMAN asked Mr. Yahara if he has a daughter named Shelly.
MR. YAHARA said he does, and that she attended Grace Community
Christian School.
SENATOR LEMAN asked how HB 367 am might have changed Shelly's
education, especially in regard to having the opportunity to tap
into the music program in the public school.
MR. YAHARA replied that not knowing what avenues were available, he
never looked into it. He has other children attending school, ages
15, 13, and 11, and given this option he would look at alternatives
to see what might work for them.
The committee took a brief at-ease.
[END OF TAPE]
TAPE 98-36, SIDE A
CHAIRMAN WILKEN commented that his understanding last year was that
a part-time student had to sit on the sideline until space was
available in the class. He asked Representative Dyson if schools
are mandated to educate a part-time student under this bill, will
the state pick up the responsibility for that child at the end of
the process, so that when it comes time for the home schooler to
graduate, will the public school owe that child the opportunity to
take the exit exam and grant him/her a diploma.
REPRESENTATIVE DYSON replied it will not. If a part-time student
wants to enroll in a class that is full with 28 students, HB 367
am will only require that the part-time student not be treated any
differently than a full-time student who might also want entry into
the class. If the class can accommodate more students, fine, but
if not, then whatever criteria is used to decide whether to start
a new class must be applied to both students. He repeated that HB
367 am is an anti-discrimination bill.
SENATOR WILKEN indicated he sensed some reluctance on behalf of the
state to pick up responsibility for home schoolers when the bill
was heard last year, because there was no way to assess or monitor
those students' progress. He noted he was surprised that, at the
end of the process, no diploma is given. He asked if DOE has
stated any position on this bill as to its responsibility.
REPRESENTATIVE DYSON replied he has spoken to several of the
alternative education groups about whether they would like to
participate in the state testing process so that their students can
receive diplomas, but the jury is still out on that question. He
guessed that some of those groups will choose to do so as another
way of authenticating a student's performance that might be
valuable to an employer or a college.
MS. TORKELSON added that many home schoolers were leery about the
exit exam because they did not have enough information about it.
At this time, they prefer to get a GED. Regarding the question of
whether home schoolers would get a high school diploma, the home
schooled student must take the required classes given at that
school to meet the district's requirements to get a diploma.
Taking a few classes at a public school does not make a home
schooled student eligible for a diploma from that district.
CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked Mr. Jeans if, in DOE's opinion, by allowing
part-time students to take classes at public schools, those
students will fall under the state mandate to provide for the
education of students thereby requiring public schools to monitor
their progress and pick up the responsibility at the end for their
education.
EDDY JEANS, School Finance Manager of DOE, stated DOE has not had
those discussions. He believed the public school classes would be
viewed as a supplement to the educational program of part-time
students.
CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked that DOE submit any comments it has on that
issue to him. He also asked Mr. Jeans if a correspondence student
who takes one class at a public school would actually be funded as
more than one full time student.
MR. JEANS replied within a school district's home boundaries, DOE
has taken the position that the district can only claim the student
once (as one FTE), however in some instances, students are enrolled
in statewide correspondence programs as full-time students, and
also attend a community school. Those students would be counted on
a fractional basis which could generate more than one FTE.
CHAIRMAN WILKEN stated, as a general policy, he did not think DOE
would want a student to count as more than one FTE in any case.
MR. JEANS responded he was not sure he could agree because the
educational institute providing those services should be
compensated for doing so. He noted a student might be taking
correspondence courses to supplement his/her full-time public
school attendance to graduate one year earlier. He stated DOE
would either pay the cost in a three year period or spread it over
four years.
CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked Mr. Jeans if, from his perspective, HB 367 am
would not create any double accounting problems or inflated student
count problems.
MR. JEANS maintained double counting could occur, but it is not as
big of an issue as people make it out to be.
CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked if there is a way to quantify what the state
may be exposing itself to.
MR. JEANS replied DOE does not currently collect information on
part-time students. The only way DOE could monitor what students
are doing would be to create a statewide system of student
identifiers so that it could track which courses students are
taking and the status of the student's educational program.
REPRESENTATIVE DYSON stated that one school district was adamant
about not taking part-time students until it was approached by two
boys who were correspondence students who weighed over 240 pounds.
The football coach was easily able to get the district to change
its policy toward part-time students.
CHAIRMAN WILKEN announced he would hold the bill over until
Wednesday, at 9:00 a.m., and then adjourned the meeting.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|