SCR 17: Recognizing the 50th anniversary of the state's regional educational attendance areas; and celebrating the enduring contributions of the state's regional educational attendance areas to public education, local leadership, and community life in rural areas of the state.
00 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 17 01 Recognizing the 50th anniversary of the state's regional educational attendance areas; 02 and celebrating the enduring contributions of the state's regional educational attendance 03 areas to public education, local leadership, and community life in rural areas of the 04 state. 05 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 06 WHEREAS Article VII, sec. 1, Constitution of the State of Alaska, requires the 07 legislature to establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children of the 08 state; and 09 WHEREAS, in 1975, the Alaska State Legislature enacted landmark reforms that 10 established the regional educational attendance areas in rural areas of the state, creating a new 11 framework for public education in the unorganized borough; and 12 WHEREAS the landmark "Molly Hootch" litigation, Tobeluk v. Lind, 589 P.2d 873 13 (Alaska 1979), culminated in a 1976 consent decree requiring the state to provide local 14 secondary schools in rural communities, reinforcing the state's constitutional obligation to 15 offer equitable educational opportunity and shaping the modern development of locally
01 governed public education in rural areas of the state, including the regional educational 02 attendance areas; and 03 WHEREAS the regional educational attendance area structure was designed to 04 replace centralized administration with a model rooted in community voice, regional decision- 05 making, and public accountability; and 06 WHEREAS state law delegates authority to regional school boards in each regional 07 educational attendance area to operate public schools in those areas in accordance with state 08 law, recognizing regional educational attendance areas as full participants in the state's public 09 education system; and 10 WHEREAS state law provides that regional educational attendance areas should, as 11 far as practicable, reflect integrated socioeconomic, linguistic, and cultural communities, 12 while also considering transportation and communication networks, demonstrating an early 13 and important legislative recognition that effective education governance in rural areas of the 14 state must reflect place, people, and practical realities; and 15 WHEREAS regional educational attendance areas are operated on an areawide basis 16 under the management and control of elected regional school boards, creating a durable 17 system of democratic local governance in communities across the unorganized borough; and 18 WHEREAS state law requires regional school boards to establish community 19 advisory school boards in qualifying communities, strengthening community participation and 20 helping ensure that school leadership remains connected to local priorities and students' lived 21 realities; and 22 WHEREAS, for five decades, regional educational attendance area school districts 23 have educated generations of state residents, served tens of thousands of students, sustained 24 schools in remote and roadless communities, and helped preserve the principle that a child's 25 access to public education should not depend on whether that child lives in an urban center or 26 a rural village; and 27 WHEREAS regional educational attendance areas have contributed to the state's civic 28 life by fostering local leadership, including school board members, educators, support staff, 29 and community advocates whose service has strengthened both schools and communities; and 30 WHEREAS regional educational attendance area educators, staff, families, tribal 31 leaders, elders, and community members have worked, often under difficult conditions and
01 across immense distances, to support students and keep schools operating through changing 02 economic, technological, and social conditions; and 03 WHEREAS the 50th anniversary of the establishment of regional educational 04 attendance areas is an appropriate occasion for the legislature to recognize the vision behind 05 the creation of regional educational attendance areas and to honor the people who have 06 sustained and improved the regional educational attendance areas over time; 07 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature honors the 50th anniversary of 08 the regional educational attendance areas and recognizes the regional educational attendance 09 areas as a foundational part of the state's public education system and a lasting expression of 10 the state's commitment to educational access, local governance, and rural communities; and 11 be it 12 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature expresses gratitude to the 13 students, families, elders, tribes, regional school board members, advisory school board 14 members, teachers, administrators, and school staff whose work and leadership have shaped 15 the regional educational attendance areas across five decades; and be it 16 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature reaffirms its commitment 17 to strong public schools in every region of the state and to continued partnership with regional 18 educational attendance area districts, tribes, and communities in support of student success. 19 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Dr. Deena Bishop, 20 Commissioner, Department of Education and Early Development; the State Board of 21 Education and Early Development; the Association of Alaska School Boards; each Regional 22 Educational Attendance Area school district in the state; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and 23 the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Nicholas Begich, U.S. 24 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.