Legislature(2019 - 2020)CAPITOL 106
04/01/2019 08:00 AM House EDUCATION
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB24 | |
| HB75 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 24 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 75 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
HB 75-INTERNET FOR SCHOOLS; FUNDING
8:20:24 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND announced that the final order of business
would be HOUSE BILL NO. 75, "An Act relating to funding for
Internet services for school districts; and relating to the
Alaska higher education investment fund."
8:20:45 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SARA RASMUSSEN, Alaska State Legislature, as
prime sponsor of HB 75, paraphrased a portion of the sponsor
statement, which read in its entirety as follows [original
punctuation provided]:
Alaska's constitution clearly establishes a
requirement for the state to provide an education to
all its children, regardless of where that student
resides. However, Alaska's test scores and graduation
rates are consistently below national averages. Our
students deserve better outcomes.
House Bill 75 aims to improve education outcomes
across the state by improving access to broadband in
schools, including those in our most remote
communities. Improved internet access means students
and teachers will be able to tap into additional
educational resources that they would otherwise be
unable to access at slower speeds.
In 2014, the Alaska State Legislature passed a bill to
create the Broadband Assistance Grant program to
assist school districts with the cost of Internet
services and ensure that all schools achieved a
download speed of 10 Megabits per second (Mbps). By
raising the floor from 10 Mbps to 25 Mbps, House Bill
75 will more than double the number of students who
can access distance learning content at any given
time, without any additional infrastructure.
It is time to update the minimum Internet speed in
statute to align with the increased bandwidth needs of
today's students.
8:21:51 AM
KRYSTEN WALKER, Staff, Representative Sara Rasmussen, Alaska
State Legislature, on behalf of Representative Rasmussen, prime
sponsor of HB 75, reviewed the sectional summary, which read as
follows [original punctuation provided]:
Section 1: AS 14.03.127 (a) Amends AS 14.03.127(a) to
provide that schools qualifying for discounted
Internet services under the federal universal services
program are eligible to receive an amount of funding
necessary to provide a minimum of 25 megabits of
download per second.
Section 2: AS 37.14.750(a) Amends AS 37.14.750(a) to
provide that money in the Alaska higher education fund
may be appropriated to fund school Internet services
under AS 14.30.127.
Section 3: AS 37.14.750 Adds a new subsection to AS
37.14.750, providing that the legislature may
appropriate any amount from the Alaska higher
education fund for school Internet services under AS
14.03.127 in addition to the amount of the fund
available for grants and scholarships under AS
37.14.750(c).
8:22:33 AM
REPRESENTATIVE STORY asked the bill sponsor whether she is
committed to using the higher education funds as the source of
revenue. She expressed concern that the fund also covers Alaska
proponent scholarships and education grants. She said she
wonders if the bill provisions could be funded from the general
fund.
REPRESENTATIVE RASMUSSEN answered that she would be willing to
look at other funding sources.
8:23:24 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HOPKINS noted there were $2 million left over in
"e-rate funding," and he wondered if that money could be used
toward HB 75.
REPRESENTATIVE RASMUSSEN responded that she would need to speak
with the Division of Legislative Finance to determine an answer.
She noted another funding option may be a grant from the Bill
Gates Foundation. She indicated that a grant could be applied
for through a partnership with a local nonprofit organization.
REPRESENTATIVE HOPKINS asked whether the bill sponsor had spoken
with any school districts regarding HB 75.
REPRESENTATIVE RASMUSSEN deferred to her staff.
8:24:37 AM
MS. WALKER said the sponsor's staff met with the Bristol Bay
School District, which was supportive [of increased access to
Internet], and she surmised that other school districts would
express the same support.
8:25:04 AM
REPRESENTATIVE STORY observed that many e-rate funds come from
user fees, particularly from cellular user services, and she
said a significant amount of money would be coming into school
districts under HB 75. She wondered whether the sponsor had
spoken with the Department of Education & Early Development
(DEED) and whether the department is confident that an increase
of e-rate funds going to school districts will not affect "the
disparity test."
MS. WALKER offered her understanding that "the department's
working on crunching those numbers."
REPRESENTATIVE STORY posited that those numbers need to be seen
to avoid using funds that result in the disparity test not being
met.
8:26:00 AM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked how many students the additional
funding would serve.
REPRESENTATIVE RASMUSSEN answered that that number is not
available; however, she proffered that [the school Internet
services funded under HB 75] would reach districts across the
state.
MS. WALKER pointed out that included in the committee packet is
a list of schools with fewer than 25 Mbps, and those are the
schools that would qualify under HB 75.
8:26:51 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND offered her understanding that there was "a
significant funding that lapsed" because of the 10 Mbps maximum,
and she said she knows school districts are "looking forward to
being able to apply for this." She inquired about a fiscal note
for HB 75.
8:27:19 AM
The committee took a brief at-ease at 8:27 a.m.
8:27:36 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND announced that a fiscal note was "not quite
ready."
8:27:47 AM
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK, regarding Co-Chair Drummond's previous
mention of the lapse in funding, offered his understanding that
it was $1 million that lapsed" and he said he thinks there would
be "at least a million dollars available for the fund" at 25
Mbps.
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND offered correction in terminology and
expressed her desire to form a special committee on technology
within the legislature.
8:28:37 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND initiated invited testimony.
8:28:46 AM
CHRISTINE O'CONNER, Executive Director, Alaska Telecom
Association (ATA), said ATA represents telecommunications
providers and is "the landline, long distance, wireless, and
broadband provider serving Alaska." She stated that ATA
supports HB 75, which will help schools to increase broadband
speed, thus providing access for teachers and students to a wide
array of content and educational tools. She said ATA has
reviewed the list of schools that would benefit under HB 75, and
confirmed that each school can be upgraded to 25 Mbps. She
indicated that any necessary upgrades, which would be specific
to each site, would not be expected to increase to the magnitude
as would placing a "middle mile section" of fiber optic
infrastructure or launching new satellite. She expressed
appreciation for the effort being made [under HB 75] to provide
schools with increased access to broadband, and she said ATA is
committed to continually improving its network and welcomes the
opportunity to collaborate with teachers and students toward
accessing the tools needed.
8:30:22 AM
MS. O'CONNOR, in response to Representative Johnson, recapped
her comments regarding upgrades.
8:31:43 AM
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK questioned why the upgrades haven't been
done already if it doesn't require "a higher rate."
MS. O'CONNOR answered that in terms of not rising to the level
of middle mile construction, her understanding is that "the real
support coming in the bill is for the ongoing operational costs
- the recurring costs - of the support for the increased fees,
most cases 90 percent of which is covered through the federal e-
rate program." She clarified that she thinks the reason the
upgrades have not happened previously is because of that
recurring cost. In response to a follow-up question, she said
she does not know what the cost will end up being, but it will
vary from school to school and based on area per provider. She
said through the e-rate process, the school will put out a
request for proposal (RFP), asking for bids from each provider,
and then choose the provider and rate.
8:33:36 AM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON directed attention to the document
included in the committee packet, labeled "2017-2018 School Year
School District Bandwidth Counts less than 25 Mbps." She
observed that there were no schools in the Matanuska-Susitna
(Mat-Su) area listed. She then asked whether the schools in
Anchorage that were on the list were charter schools.
MS. O'CONNOR responded that Representative Johnson's
observations were correct. She added that the Mat-Su School
District has a robust fiber infrastructure.
8:34:43 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HOPKINS asked whether private citizens, private
businesses, or other state buildings would be able to "tap into"
the broadband increase that would take affect under HB 75.
MS. O'CONNOR answered that it would be possible to extend the
network to other locations; however, if the fiber is constructed
using e-rate funds, there are specific rules on how that can be
used for other entities. She added, "But generally, when you
have an anchor institution that allows you to construct fiber,
that will help bringing availability to the surrounding area."
8:35:59 AM
REPRESENTATIVE STORY expressed she thinks [the increase in
broadband width] would be valuable for rural school districts;
it would enable them to incorporate desired innovations and help
with student learning. She said it will be interesting to see
"how these questions are answered and how we can go forward."
8:36:34 AM
LISA PARADY, Ph.D., Executive Director, Alaska Council of School
Administrators (ACSA), testified in support of HB 75. She said
she is also speaking on behalf of Norm Wooten, the executive
director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, who was
unable to testify today. She said there was a similar bill last
year that did not make it all the way through the process. She
expressed appreciation for HB 75 and the previous discussion
regarding the previous lapse of funding. She indicated her hope
that the language in HB 75 stating the minimum of 25 Mbps would
prevent that from happening again. She emphasized her
involvement in 2015 bringing forward a grant when she was
working in the North Slope School District, and in the district,
there were villages with 1 or 2 Mbps. A next step was to
connect the villages that could not use [the Internet] for
instruction. She mentioned effort to bring all villages up to a
base of 10 Mbps. She said she recognizes that today it is
unlikely that there will be funding to "connect the state all at
once." She said that "the last time" she understood the cost
would have been in the range of $2 billion. She said the grant
is critical in raising the broadband levels, in this case to a
minimum of 25 Mbps.
DR. PARADY read a statement underlining the highest priority of
the council as being the increase of bandwidth in outlying
areas, as follows:
Alaska students need and deserve the full
transformative power of technology and equitable
access to online resources. ... Teachers and school
leaders of Alaska, some of whom live in some of the
most remote areas of the world, require access to
modern technology in order to transform learning,
create efficiencies, provide online ... health
services, and keep pace with their peers globally.
ACSA supports continuing the broadband systems grant
and increasing the level of state-funded bandwidth for
schools for a minimum of 25 ... [Mbps]. This funding
leverages federal e-rate funds, at approximately [a]
9:1 ratio, to provide Alaska students and educators
their access to the digital world.
DR. PARADY stated that as of 2017, there were an estimated
51,000 students across the state that still lacked access to the
bandwidth needed to support the integration of technology in
classroom instruction, and HB 75 would address this statistic.
She said reliable access to the Internet is a critical component
to learning, and many students cannot access the Internet. She
emphasized the importance of passing HB 75 to provide equity in
connectivity. She said rural schools are the anchor centers and
often provide the opportunity for the community to utilize the
school; therefore, providing broader bandwidth would benefit the
communities.
8:43:50 AM
PATRICK MAYER, Superintendent, Yakutat School District;
President, Alaska Superintendents Association; President, Alaska
Council of School Administrators, stated, "Alaska's students
need and deserve the full transformative power of technology and
fair access to online resources." He said digital content makes
up a great portion of the district's curriculum, and the schools
increasingly use digital content for supplemental materials and
intervention programs. He related that the Yakutat School
District is limited to 10 MB per second, which severely limits
the ability to stream higher-end digital content, and as a
result, the district must make choices in which content it will
be able to utilize. He said this hampers students' ability to
enroll and participate in "dual credit opportunities." He
stated that this is an equity issue, because "there simply are
'have' and 'have-not' districts in this [state]." While some
districts can purchase as much bandwidth as necessary, others
cannot. He referred to the 2019 joint position statement
previously quoted by Ms. Parady, and echoed that ACSA stands in
support of continuing the broadband assistance grant and
increasing the level of state-funded bandwidth for schools, to a
minimum of 25 Mbps of download.
8:46:09 AM
PATIENCE FREDERIKSEN, Director, Division of Libraries, Archives
and Museums, stated that the school guide program, at 10 Mbps,
has been administered by the state library for the past five
years; therefore, she said she could speak to the issue from the
point of view of an administrator. She said the program was
easy to administer once regulations were in place in the first
year. There were many questions from school districts about the
program. She said schools approached her to question whether
they could have more than 10 MB per second; therefore, she
expressed concern regarding the language in HB 75 that would
establish "a minimum" of 25 MB per second. She said she fully
expects school districts will be calling to ask for more,
because "'a minimum of' implies that we can go beyond 25." She
said she recommends the committee amend the bill to delete "a
minimum of". In terms of funding, she said the division would
manage the fund with whichever method of funding the legislature
designates.
MS. FREDERIKSEN said the division compiled a list last month of
245 schools that fall below the 25 Mbps mark. She indicated
there is a fiscal note, but she surmised it had not made it
through a final review. The fiscal note would show that "this
is going to be about $9.8 million of state funds per year." She
said the current program at 10 Mbps is at a cost of
approximately $1.2 million. She explained the math that led to
the fiscal note amount. She said currently there are 80 schools
receiving support in order to get to the 10 Mbps; HB 75 would
considerably broaden that number to get schools to the 25 Mbps
mark.
8:49:15 AM
REPRESENTATIVE ZULKOSKY asked Ms. Frederiksen if she thinks 25
Mbps should be the maximum.
MS. FREDERIKSEN answered the proposed legislation seems to
propose "a step up," and she opined that "25 is fine." She said
when the 10 Mbps law was instated, approximately 140 schools
joined the program. Over the past five years, schools have
found they can go beyond the 10 Mbps without state support, so
they have dropped out of the program. She said she does not
know who chose the number 25. She said there is a national
recommendation for 100 Mbps for schools, so "this would at least
get us closer to the 100 MB." She remarked, "Internet is always
a moving target." She outlined the increases over the years.
She stated, "It's always going to increase. No library and no
school has enough Internet at any one given time."
REPRESENTATIVE ZULKOSKY asked if Ms. Frederiksen is suggesting
that "a minimum of" might result in ambiguity in statute.
MS. FREDERIKSEN answered, "Exactly, it would be ambiguous."
8:51:25 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HOPKINS asked whether the $9.1 million would be
for operations and maintenance of the fiber optics or for
capital expenditure.
MS. FREDERIKSEN answered that a school applies for an e-rate at
a certain level, for example 25 Mbps, and then it starts getting
bids from providers. She said prior to e-rate, which began in
1995, [schools] paid for their own Internet. From 1995 to 2014,
schools paid for their Internet in combination with federal e-
rate funds, which cover 86 percent. Then the School Bag program
started, which made a third funding stream, such that e-rate
funds pay 86 percent, and the schools and the School Bag program
split the remaining 14 percent. She said this does not pay for
infrastructure at the schools or with the providers; the funding
goes directly toward payment of Internet bills.
REPRESENTATIVE HOPKINS asked how HB 75 would affect the Online
With Libraries (OWL) program.
MS. FREDERIKSEN answered that these are separate programs.
8:53:58 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND opened public testimony on HB 75. After
ascertaining no one wished to testify, she closed public
testimony.
8:54:04 AM
REPRESENTATIVE STORY asked whether, if "a minimum of" remains in
the bill language, districts with more than 25 Mbps would be
able to access funds.
MS. FREDERIKSEN said the division's understanding of the 10 Mbps
in statute is that it helps school districts "get up to 10."
She said some of the districts have asked if they can get the
help to get to the 10 Mbps and then "go as far as we want to
go." She said the way the division interprets the law, the
answer to that question is no, "this was to get to school to 10
Mbps straight forward." She added that if the school had the
money to go beyond that, then it did not need the state's
support and would be "on their own." She explained the reason
some schools have dropped out of the program is because the cost
of Internet has dropped.
REPRESENTATIVE ZULKOSKY asked if the aforementioned fiscal note
was drafted based on "up to 25" Mbps.
MS. FREDERIKSEN answered that the division looked at the exact
number of schools that were under 25, and that was the basis for
the 245 sites needing to get up to 25.
8:56:41 AM
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK offered his understanding that the $9.8
million fiscal note would get the districts up to 25 Mbps;
however, if the ["a minimum of"] language is left in HB 75, that
will not necessarily increase the fiscal note.
MS. FREDERIKSEN clarified that administering the program with
the "a minimum of" phrase left in the bill would be difficult,
because school districts have a desire to go beyond 25 Mbps.
That is why the division recommends the language be changed to
reflect a limit of 25 Mbps.
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK concluded that the desire is to bring
[school districts] up to the 25 Mbps mark, but suggested a
question for the committee to answer is whether it wants to
"simultaneously hold people back from going any further."
8:58:22 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND said she agrees. She said she does not want
to limit [school districts], especially in light of hearing that
the recommendation for the minimum nationally is 100 Mbps. She
opined that the committee needs to discuss the matter to figure
out "now that would work."
8:58:57 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND announced that HB 75 was held over.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB075 Additional Documents-Districts Under 25mbps 2017-2018.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Additional Documents-FCC-Household Broadband Guide.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Additional Documents-EducationSuperHighway - Alaska Snapshot 2018.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Additional Documents-FY19 Internet Costs by School.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Additional Documents-FY2015-FY2018 School BAG Statistics.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Additional Documents-FY2019 Districts and Schools Awarded BAG Funds.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Additional Documents-School BAG Flyer.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Sectional Summary 3.18.19.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Committee Packet.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 Sponsor Statement 3.18.19.pdf |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |
| HB075 ver A 3.18.19.PDF |
HEDC 4/1/2019 8:00:00 AM |
HB 75 |