02/13/2008 08:00 AM Senate SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB192 | |
| SB14 | |
| Adjourn |
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| HB 192 | |||
| = | SB 14 | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
February 13, 2008
8:00 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Gary Stevens, Chair
Senator Charlie Huggins, Vice Chair
Senator Bettye Davis
Senator Donald Olson
Senator Gary Wilken
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 192(HES)
"An Act relating to notification to teachers of layoff or non
retention."
HEARD AND HELD
SENATE BILL NO. 14
"An Act raising the compulsory school attendance age; relating
to the crime of contributing to the delinquency of a minor;
relating to duties of the Department of Education and Early
Development; relating to truancy; and relating to employment of
a minor."
HEARD AND HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: HB 192
SHORT TITLE: LAYOFF/NONRETENTION OF TEACHERS
SPONSOR(s): REPRESENTATIVE(s) DOOGAN
03/12/07 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
03/12/07 (H) HES, FIN
04/24/07 (H) HES AT 3:00 PM CAPITOL 106
04/24/07 (H) Moved CSHB 192(HES) Out of Committee
04/24/07 (H) MINUTE(HES)
04/25/07 (H) HES RPT CS(HES) 3DP 1DNP 2NR 1AM
04/25/07 (H) DP: GARDNER, FAIRCLOUGH, WILSON
04/25/07 (H) DNP: SEATON
04/25/07 (H) NR: CISSNA, NEUMAN
04/25/07 (H) AM: ROSES
05/02/07 (H) FIN RPT CS(HES) 6DP 4NR
05/02/07 (H) DP: GARA, FOSTER, CRAWFORD, NELSON,
JOULE, MEYER
05/02/07 (H) NR: STOLTZE, KELLY, HAWKER, CHENAULT
05/02/07 (H) FIN AT 8:30 AM HOUSE FINANCE 519
05/02/07 (H) Moved CSHB 192(HES) Out of Committee
05/02/07 (H) MINUTE(FIN)
05/09/07 (H) TRANSMITTED TO (S)
05/09/07 (H) VERSION: CSHB 192(HES)
05/09/07 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
05/09/07 (S) SED, HES
02/13/08 (S) SED AT 8:00 AM BUTROVICH 205
BILL: SB 14
SHORT TITLE: RAISE COMP. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AGE
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) DAVIS
01/16/07 (S) PREFILE RELEASED 1/5/07
01/16/07 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/16/07 (S) SED, JUD, FIN
04/18/07 (S) SED AT 8:00 AM BUTROVICH 205
04/18/07 (S) Heard & Held
04/18/07 (S) MINUTE(SED)
08/17/07 (S) SED AT 10:00 AM Anch LIO Conf Rm
08/17/07 (S) Heard & Held
08/17/07 (S) MINUTE(SED)
02/13/08 (S) SED AT 8:00 AM BUTROVICH 205
WITNESS REGISTER
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE DOOGAN
State Capitol
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented overview of HB 192.
JOHN ALCANTRA, Government Relations Director
NEA-Alaska
Juneau AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed HB192 and supported SB 14.
CARL ROSE, Executive Director
Association of Alaska School Boards (AASB)
Anchorage AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed HB192 and supported SB 14.
TOM OBERMEYER
Staff to Senator Davis
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions on SB 14.
RICH PATTON, Superintendant of Instruction
Lower Yukon School District
Mountain Village, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Expressed concerns about school attendance
in his district.
LAURIE SCANDLING, Principal
Yaakoosgé Daakahídi Alternative High School
and HomeBRIDGE
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 14.
DEBBIE JOCELYN, President
Eagle Forum Alaska
No address provided
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed SB 14.
ACTION NARRATIVE
CHAIR GARY STEVENS called the Senate Special Committee on
Education meeting to order at 8:00:07 AM. Present at the call to
order were Senators Donald Olson, Gary Wilken, Charlie Huggins,
Bettye Davis and Gary Stevens.
CSHB 192(HES)-LAYOFF/NONRETENTION OF TEACHERS
8:00:07 AM
CHAIR STEVENS announced consideration of CSHB 192(HES).
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE DOOGAN, sponsor of HB 192, said this bill
makes a simple change in existing law. Currently school
districts are required to notify tenured teachers by March 16 if
they might be laid off because the education funding hasn't
passed the legislature yet. Because education funding rarely
gets passed by March 16, many districts send out what they think
of as "pre-emptive pink slips."
In the 1990's when the budget was being cut, rafts of pink slips
were sent out in Anchorage. It's not quite as big a problem for
the larger communities now because teacher population is turning
over; teachers are younger and, therefore, non-tenured and the
law doesn't cover non-tenured teachers. However, any community
that has a relatively small teacher workforce and a high
percentage of tenured teachers will still have this problem.
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN said that unless the education funding
bill is passed by March 1, both tenured and non-tenured teachers
would receive notification at the same time at the end of the
school year [not March 16]. If education funding is out by March
1, then the March 16 notification date for tenured teachers
applies. He hoped this would relieve the need for these pre-
emptive pink slips.
He remembered in the 1990's how distribution of the pink slips
caused a great deal of angst among Anchorage teachers because
they were never really sure if they were going to be out of a
job or if this was just a notification the district was doing to
comply with state law. Teachers began leaving after that
happened three or four years in a row.
CHAIR STEVENS remembered having to pink slip a whole lot of
teachers in Kodiak too and it was a terrible situation because
they got jobs elsewhere and weren't available to be hired back.
He asked what this bill actually does for the teachers; finding
out that they are losing their jobs later in the year could be a
disadvantage.
8:04:28 AM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN replied that if the board actually intends
to terminate a teacher, the teacher is at a disadvantage in
terms of being able to find new employment; but it's a balancing
act. In his view, small school districts that depend heavily on
experienced teachers to teach more than one course are in
substantial danger of having those teachers get tired of
receiving those pink slips and walk off. He said he is
sponsoring the bill because he doesn't think the state should be
in the position of telling local government how to handle their
labor relations and it has caused a great deal of consternation
in his community. If teachers want the March 16 date, they can
negotiate it; nothing in this bill that would keep a school
district from doing this.
CHAIR STEVENS asked about the difference between giving pink
slips to tenured and non-tenured teachers.
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN replied that currently non-tenured
teachers don't have to be notified by March 16. Mr. Alcantra
could explain it better.
SENATOR HUGGINS said this bill takes them from March 16 to "date
uncertain" and school years end on different dates; and asked if
that would pose unintended consequences.
REPRESENTIVE DOOGAN replied that the reason it went to the end
of the school year is because the state's budgeting is
uncertain, which makes pegging a pink slip to an actual budget
is very difficult. He picked the end of the school year simply
because that is the date for non-tenured teachers in the
existing statute.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked if this precludes districts from mailing
out pink slips to tenured teachers any time they choose.
REPRESENTIVE DOOGAN answered that is correct.
8:08:08 AM
JOHN ALCANTRA, Government Relations Director, The National
Education Association of Alaska (NEA-Alaska), opposed HB 192. He
said this idea is just as bad now as it was three years ago when
it was first introduced in the Senate. Currently tenured
teachers must be notified by March 16 if they are to be laid off
because then they will have time to attend job fairs, most often
held in April, to search for new employment. Furthermore, many
schools lock their staff in by having them sign individual
contracts prior to the end of the school year. Significant
penalties are attached to those contracts if teachers break them
anywhere close to the end of the school year.
This bill puts all the hardship on the teachers by requiring
them to notify their districts early of their intent to return
while allowing the districts the option of laying them off on
the last day of school - when major recruiting drives have
already been completed.
MR. ALCANTRA stated that Alaska should be doing everything in
its power to recruit and retain teachers. A 2006 Internet
Special Education Resources (ISER) report verified that about 75
percent of teachers are hired from outside Alaska. Studies also
show that 50 percent of teachers leave the profession after five
years. Alaska should not be in the business of making things
more difficult for teachers, he asserted; and while he's sure
the sponsor's heart is in the right place, this legislation
would be a step backwards.
He reflected that what seems to drive this legislation is that
school districts never know what their funding level will be by
March 16; but supporting the forward funding of education would
seem a more appropriate response. The important work done by the
Education Funding Task Force and the drive to fund education by
March 1 would seem to make this legislation superfluous.
CHAIR STEVENS asked Mr. Alcantra to clarify when a teacher has
to give notification to the district.
MR. ALCANTRA replied that it depends on the individual contract
signed to retain the teacher. Serious problems arise when
tenured teachers are laid off and there is excessive teacher
turnover. Four hundred teachers were hired in Anchorage just in
the last two school years. It is an earned right to have that
notification by March 16.
CHAIR STEVENS asked what normal notification for tenured
teachers is if the districts want them to continue.
MR. ALCANTRA replied that if the school chooses to retain a
teacher, a contract is signed before the end of the school year.
There is no specific date.
CHAIR STEVENS asked when the district has to notify the teacher,
since the teacher has to notify the district.
MR. ALCANTRA replied that statute sets no specific date. If the
teacher wishes to be retained for the following year, she or he
must go to the principal and work out a contract.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked if the teacher has a window in which to
sign the contract.
MR. ALCANTRA replied that plenty of contracts, especially for
new teachers, are signed even after the school year has been
completed.
SENATOR DAVIS said she understands that he doesn't want to see
this bill passed, but asked if he is satisfied with the status
quo.
8:13:57 AM
MR. ALCANTRA replied a large number of teachers don't have
tenure in the Anchorage School District and throughout Alaska.
He does not want to see tenured teachers put in the same
situation as non-tenured teachers.
8:15:58 AM
SENATOR DAVIS asked him what he would suggest as a solution.
MR. ALCANTRA that NEA-Alaska has not talked about an alternative
date so he didn't have a good answer for her.
SENATOR HUGGINS said another factor that affects tenured
teachers is declining enrollment and asked if the provisions in
the bill would have any affect on that scenario.
8:17:15 AM
MR. ALCANTRA replied that as enrollment declines it will affect
teacher layoffs; but he didn't know how that would affect
individual districts.
SENATOR WILKEN opined that this is not a very good bill. He said
the public education fund that the legislature put in place
three years ago has over $1 billion in it and he couldn't
imagine they would have the political courage to spend that fund
and not replenish it; so they will always have that billion
dollars or so set aside when they return in January. There is no
reason they shouldn't be able to get an education bill out of
there if they just concentrate on education bills and don't let
them get "balled up" in PERS and TERS and revenue sharing. He
recalled in 2003 when the education bill sat for a month because
someone wanted a bulldozer in Rampart; so if they just keep
politics out of it and focus on what they campaign on as one of
their highest priorities, and they have the money in the bank,
th
there is no reason they can't have a March 15 education bill.
This bill removes one of the levers that will move the
legislature towards that; and the legislature needs the pressure
from teachers being somewhat at risk to let them know how
important it is that they have an education bill, have it free
of politics and have it passed early.
He said he can't support this bill; he agrees with Mr. Alcantra.
8:21:14 AM
CARL ROSE, Executive Director, Association of Alaska School
Boards (AASB), said the [March 16] date has created a "healthy
pressure" and this bill destabilizes the school districts.
Teachers understand economic conditions and can see when things
aren't looking good; they would be looking elsewhere even
without a layoff notice.
He said there was a time when AASB would have supported this
bill, but it was very reactionary at that time and concerned
with labor management issues. They have learned to live with
these dates he said and suggested the solution is to forward-
fund and give school districts an opportunity to plan early.
Another consequence for teachers is if they sign a contract and
break it, they must go before the Professional Teacher Practices
Commission and possibly lose their certificate. Even if they
find something better, they are already bound to the district
they have signed with.
CHAIR STEVENS asked Mr. Rose if "step-down funding" from loss of
student population has an impact on pink slips.
MR. ROSE answered the intent of the law was to allow tenured
teachers to be laid off because of student attrition. He
explained as school districts tried to reduce their workforce,
they found it necessary to maintain certain course offerings.
For example, if there is a non-tenured math or science teacher
and four or five tenured history or music teachers, the layoff
provisions allow a district to lay off a tenured teacher and
retain a non-tenured teacher based on qualifications. The Haines
and Hoonah school districts tried to do that a couple of years
ago; they were taken to court and lost, so people are reluctant
to go there.
SENATOR OLSON asked what the school boards' take is on this
bill.
MR. ROSE responded that some in his membership look upon tenure
as a real problem, but it's not the kind of problem that it used
to be. NEA-Alaska and AASB used to be on opposite sides of that
issue, but that has changed because now they both focus on
student achievement and hiring the most qualified teachers.
It is possible to discharge a tenured teacher, but it involves a
detailed evaluation process. Districts also work with teachers
now on plans to improve their abilities and quality of
instruction.
SENATOR OLSON said it sounds like there is a divergence of
opinion on this bill within the school boards.
MR. ROSE responded not as much as there used to be.
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN said this might not be a problem now
because the state has a lot of money which tends to dissolve
differences. However, there won't always be a lot of money in
the budget. He said this is not just a matter between the unions
and the school boards. Parents and students get caught up in
this as well. The pink slip policy that the state imposes on the
districts will cause problems in the future.
SENATOR WILKEN said this bill would work better in a year when
the legislature depletes the education fund and doesn't
replenish it. He said there will be a year's warning and time to
creep up on this issue in the future.
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN said he would bet the issue of the school
budget will not be resolved by the trigger date.
CHAIR STEVENS said that CSHB 192(HES) would be held over.
SB 14-RAISE COMP. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AGE
8:32:14 AM
CHAIR STEVENS announced consideration of SB 14 and invited
comments from the sponsor, Senator Davis.
SENATOR DAVIS said there have been many changes to this bill and
what was before the committee dealt with just one issue, the
compulsory age of 18.
SENATOR HUGGINS moved to adopt the proposed committee substitute
to SB 14, labeled 25-LSO134, Mischel, Version L, as the working
document. There were no objections and it was so ordered.
TOM OBERMEYER, staff to Senator Davis, said there was a new CS
to SB 14 labeled CSSB 14( ) 25-LS0134\O.
8: 34 at ease 8:36:04 AM
CHAIR STEVENS called the meeting back to order at 8:36:04 AM.
MR. OBERMEYER said the only change in Version O deleted
subsection (2) on page 4 describing the requirement for a review
body in every school district. The current version of this bill
removed the mandatory truant officers and the required truancy
review bodies. The hope is that the compulsory school age
portion of this bill will solve some of the problems of truancy.
8:37:58 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS moved to adopt the proposed committee substitute
to CSSB 14, labeled 25-LSO134, Mischel, Version O, as the
working document of the committee. There being no objection,
the motion carried.
CHAIR STEVENS confirmed that the only change has to do with the
review body. He asked if there were other changes.
8:38:47 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS asked in which version of the bill the
transition away from truancy officers took place.
MR. OBERMEYER replied he thought it was in the K version.
SENATOR DAVIS explained that when these bills were first
introduced, they were two separate bills. She was asked by the
Special Committee on Education to combine the two. One hearing
was held and no action has been taken since that time. She
decided to postpone the truancy issue for another bill and asked
if she could bring forward a CS so she could address the
compulsory age issue, which is in this bill.
MR. OBERMEYER said truant officers were still in the K version.
When the bill moved to Version L, truant officers were removed.
The bill then went to Version O that removed the procedures to
prevent and reduce truancy in section (2) from page 4. He
explained that two control mechanisms were essentially taken out
of the bill - the mandatory truancy officers for a large
district of 1000 Average Daily Membership (ADM) or more which
produced only 13 truant officers throughout the state and was a
very expensive process, and the mandatory review body, because
districts were already working internally to deal with the
problem.
CHAIR STEVENS said for clarification that the current bill has
no truancy officers and no review body and that it primarily
deals with changing the age from 16 to 18.
8:41:53 AM
RICH PATTON, Superintendant of Instruction, Lower Yukon School
District, Mountain Village, AK, said he's been working in
education in Alaska for 12 years. His district's concerns might
not necessarily relate to this bill, but are more about
enforcing attendance laws that are currently on the books. A
fair percentage of younger children in rural Alaska don't attend
school as regularly as they should and there aren't sufficient
resources to help families deal with this problem. He informed
the committee that his district had recently hired an attendance
specialist to support families and perform the duties of a
truancy officer, but the main problem is enforcement.
8:44:22 AM
LAURIE SCANDLING, Principal, Yaakoosgé Daakahídi Alternative
High School and the HomeBRIDGE Home School Program, Juneau, AK,
said she has been with the school system for 15 years. She
shared that recently she had parents come to her office and ask
her if their kid knew he could drop out of school at age 16. She
replied of course not, she was there to encourage drop-outs to
remain in school. Both parents asked that he not be told because
they felt they had no power to stop him if he decided to drop
out after he turned 16. She also related that she worked at the
main high school for nine years and during that time had several
students bring her the drop-out form on their sixteenth
birthday.
MS. SCANDLING said brain research has shown that teenagers are
not hard-wired, particularly in the area of judgment, until
their early 20's. So it cannot be assumed that when they turn 16
they are suddenly ready to make life-changing decisions. She
said a similar bill two years ago attempted to raise the
compulsory age to attend school and it received the endorsement
of student government officers across the state as well as the
Alaska Association of School Boards (AASB).
She saw this as a bill for parent empowerment and emphasized
that "Right now parents have no authority to keep their child in
school past their sixteenth birthday; and it's very stressful to
meet with parents when their kid has in their mind that they are
going to leave school."
MS. SCANDLING stated that Alaska is sixth from the bottom in the
country regarding the on-time graduation rate. About one in
three students do not graduate on time; nationally about half of
those who don't graduate on time never graduate at all.
Nationally, the highest drop-out rate is among American Indian
and Alaska Natives and Alaska has the highest percentage of
these two groups enrolled in school. Twenty-six states plus DC,
American Samoa and Puerto Rico already have compulsory age
attendance until 17 or 18, according to the Education Commission
of the States as of last summer.
She stated further that dropping out perpetuates and correlates
directly to poverty, partly because drop-outs cannot walk into
life-long secure employment. Those who don't have a high school
diploma have a 50 percent greater chance of being unemployed.
One in four kids living in the lowest 20 percent income brackets
in the country don't finish high school and perpetuate the
poverty cycle. Data from the 2000 census shows those who don't
earn a high school diploma earn a quarter million dollars less
over their lifetimes than people who graduate. Non-graduates are
a drag on the economy in terms of public assistance and a
reduction in tax revenues, and drop-outs are three times more
likely to be incarcerated.
She encouraged the committee to raise the compulsory minimum age
to 18 rather than 17. A Canadian study showed that every year
the compulsory age was raised lowered the probability of being
unemployed and boosted weekly earnings, which in many areas
increased tax revenues. She also felt the bill should make clear
that any alternative school, especially at the high school
level, should be an accredited alternative. She explained that,
as principal of the home school program, she guides parents to
choose accredited materials rather than unaccredited because it
assures quality, particularly in a time when online high schools
have proliferated across the nation without accreditation. She
also encourages them to insure that if someone is excused from
school because they are being educated at home, regular evidence
of progress is required.
MS. SCANDLING said the Juneau school district adopted a new
system which allows truant officers to issue tickets requiring
students to appear in court immediately rather than working with
the District Attorney's office, which was cumbersome, arduous
and was not a priority compared to other actual crimes that were
being committed in the community.
She concluded by urging them to change the compulsory age to 18.
CHAIR DAVIS said age 17 is in the bill because the drafters put
it in and she didn't know why. Her intention was that the
designated age be 18.
th
MS. SCANDLING said she thought it read "at the end of their 17
year they could depart school."
8:50:44 AM
CHAIR STEVENS asked Mr. Obermeyer to explain.
MR. OBERMEYER clarified that Senator Davis' intention was that
students be required to stay in school through age 18. However,
that required bumping into the majority age of 18; so Version O
says "under 18 years of age" on page 2. This age was in all the
drafts because the legislative legal staff indicated that was
the only option given the intention of the bill.
8:53:26 AM
SENATOR OLSON asked how a record of progress is implemented.
MS. SCANDLING answered that under Alaska law, which regulates
the state-wide correspondence school, regular evidence of
progress can be verbal, written or by telephone. Written
evidence is requested on a quarterly basis and can be a copy of
a received grade or copies of completed work. If nothing comes
in on a quarterly basis, the family is contacted.
SENATOR HUGGINS said the problem may be with the parents rather
than the children. Therefore, changing the age may not change
the behavior. He asked if there is any data that shows an
increase in the graduation rate in states with a higher
mandatory age.
MS. SCANDLING replied that a data clearing house may have that
information.
SENATOR HUGGINS said he had seen a study that said, although
more students were staying in school as a result of the age
change, the graduation rate remained relatively unchanged.
MS. SCANDLING replied that graduation in many states is defined
as on-time graduation, and what Senator Huggins referred to
could be affected by that definition. Extended research is
needed regarding who eventually graduates.
8:57:57 AM
JOHN ALCANTRA, Government Relation Director, NEA-Alaska, said
NEA-Alaska has supported the policy in this bill as far back as
1980. He said as a parent and uncle of 59 nieces and nephews, he
has seen in his own family how it's not a given that all
children have appropriate parental involvement.
9:00:26 AM
CARL ROSE, Executive Director, Association of Alaska School
Boards (AASB), thanked the sponsor for removing the review
committee, which would have been a very cumbersome requirement.
Age is the most important issue he said, and asked the members
if they thought they could have made an important decision at
age 15. The longer the legislature can keep kids in school and
give parents something to help them enforce this, the more
successful the kids can become. He said AASB supports the bill.
9:02:14 AM
MR. OBERMEYER said he would check on Senator Huggins' question
about higher graduation rates. He said New York had a similar
problem and it created four new "graduation-plus" high schools
to get kids through age 18 and through the process. Their
success rate is going up, but he could not say what their
overall graduation rate was. He also pointed out that on page 2
of the sponsor statement is the definition of "graduation rate"
in Alaska and that there are different definitions of this term
throughout the country.
9:04:07 AM
DEBBIE JOCELYN, President, Eagle Forum Alaska, Eagle River, AK,
opposed SB 14 because changing the compulsory age was not the
answer to the problem. She related that she home-schools her
four children, who are all doing well in school and have
aspirations of going to college; but she recognizes that is not
the case with many children in Alaska. Many children in the
situation the bill attempts to address come from broken
families, don't have fathers at home and/or live in situations
where education is not highly valued. These children are not
getting the encouragement they need at an early age. She was not
sure that government could fix the root cause of their problem,
but it could encourage society to value education more.
CHAIR DAVIS said she appreciated the caller's comments and
agreed there is no single thing that will resolve these
problems. She said this bill is just one tool that might help.
CHAIR STEVENS thanked everyone for their testimony and adjourned
the meeting at 9:08:13 AM.
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