Legislature(2001 - 2002)
03/15/2002 09:20 AM House FIN
| Audio | Topic |
|---|
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE BILL NO. 312
An Act relating to the delay of the reduction of
supplementary public school funding; and providing for
an effective date.
Co-Chair Mulder spoke to Amendment #1, 22-LS1257\A.2, Ford,
3/04/02, noting a technical change which needed to be made
on Page 1, Line 13, deleting "each" and inserting "the
prior". Co-Chair Mulder MOVED to ADOPT the corrected
Amendment #1.
Co-Chair Williams OBJECTED.
Co-Chair Mulder explained that the amendment would include
the Alaska Challenge Program which is currently administered
by the National Guard. It would be included under the
foundation formula.
REPRESENTATIVE GRETCHEN GUESS explained that the amendment
would tie it to the base student allocation rather than the
foundation formula. She pointed out that the program was
designated for "at-risk" youth who are dropping out of
school. She claimed that it was a volunteer "boot-camp"
type program for individuals working on academics in order
to get their General Education Requirement (GED) and some
vocational skills. Representative Guess stressed that it is
a rigorous program for a non-military type person.
Representative Guess explained that, unfortunately, there
has never been a funding system established. It is not a
school and it should not be under the regulations as a
school. There needs to be a separate funding stream for the
program. What the amendment attempts to do is establish a
funding stream. The formula determines how much the Youth
Academy will receive and then removes the federal grant and
then the State matches the rest.
Co-Chair Williams questioned if the amendment would move the
Challenge Program from the existing foundation formula
program.
Representative Guess explained that the bill would remove it
from being tied to the Alyeska Central correspondence
program. They could choose to purchase their services from
Alyeska Central, but that would their choice.
Co-Chair Mulder explained that the program was being changed
from Department of Military & Veterans Affairs to the
Department of Education & Early Development because these
kids have dropped out of school and they are at-risk kids.
It is important that they accomplish getting their GED and
are in the funding stream. He added that it is a program
for kids and it is not a National Guard component and that
it would be more appropriate to have it located within the
Department of Education & Early Development.
Vice-Chair Bunde acknowledged the success of the program.
He inquired about the fiscal note.
Co-Chair Williams advised that the departments would be
forthcoming with two new fiscal notes.
Co-Chair Mulder stated that the intent was to have a
negative fiscal note from the Department of Military &
Veterans Affairs. He reiterated the success of the program.
He mentioned the expected notes from the Department of
Education & Early Development and the Department of Natural
Resources.
Representative Guess explained that the fiscal note amount
would depend on the federal funds. If those funds decline,
there is already $400 thousand dollars that would be
transferred to the program from existing funds.
Vice-Chair Bunde concurred that the program is good but that
the House Finance Committee cannot pass a bill out of
Committee without the appropriate fiscal note attached.
Representative Davies agreed with Vice-Chair Bunde. He
asked for clarification regarding the maximum impact for
positive federal funds and if that impact would exceed $20
thousand State dollars.
Representative Guess responded that if the federal $2.5
million dollars holds, then the net impact would be between
$17 and $400 thousand dollars. She acknowledged that if the
federal government spends their money elsewhere, then the
State would be taking on that responsibility.
Co-Chair Williams interjected that the Committee would wait
for the fiscal note before action was taken on moving the
bill from Committee. He added that action could be taken on
adopting the amendment.
Representative Lancaster asked the location and ages of
participants.
Co-Chair Mulder commented that the program is done at the
National Guard facilities with the age group of the
individuals is from 16 to 20 years old. The program
requires that the person be a high school dropout and
voluntarily commits to the program. He reiterated that it
has an 82% success rate.
Representative Guess interjected that the population comes
from 50% in Anchorage, 25% from the Rail system and 25% from
Rural Alaska. The program is open to all Alaskans.
Representative Hudson commented that the amendment provides
for the moving away from a simple extension to an inclusion
for the Challenge Youth Academy programs. He asked if there
were other programs in the State that could "fit" into the
same venue such as Juneau's SAGA program. He acknowledged
that he did support the original intent of the bill and
asked if there are other programs that would end up being
placed as another amendment to the bill.
Representative Guess did not know of other potential
amendments to the bill. She commented that would be the
will of the Body and added that it would be appropriate to
put these programs with the others. She did not know of any
other programs which could show the success of the Alaska
Challenge Youth Academy program. She stressed that it
should not be thought of as a correspondence school. There
needs to be a separate funding entity put on it.
Co-Chair Williams WITHDREW his OBJECTION to the amendment.
Amendment #1 was adopted.
HB 312 was HELD in Committee for further consideration.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|