Legislature(2003 - 2004)
04/03/2003 03:04 PM House HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 154-UNDER SCHOOL AGE STUDENTS CHAIR WILSON announced that the first order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 154, "An Act relating to admission to and advancement in public schools of children under school age; and providing for an effective date." Number 0013 CHAIR WILSON said CSHB 154(EDU) is a bill that addresses a concern the administration has with several school districts across the state that are offering a two-year kindergarten program instead of a one year program. Those districts are getting an extra year of funding. She said if the legislature does not deal with this problem, next year it is likely there will be many more districts with two-year kindergarten [programs]. Number 0143 REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER asked Eddy Jeans, Manager, School Finance and Facilities Section, Education Support Services, Department of Education and Early Development, how much would be lost in public law or the federal impact aid. She said she knows that if the state precludes school districts from doing the two-year kindergarten [program], under federal law the department is able to count those four-year-olds who are in their first year of kindergarten. If the school districts do not keep the aid, the funds go directly to the state. Do you have an estimate of what the state will lose in federal funding, she asked. Number 0216 EDDY JEANS, Manager, School Finance and Facilities Section, Education Support Services, Department of Education and Early Development, testified in support CSHB 154(EDU). He explained that Representative Kapsner is correct; the school districts will be able to continue to apply for those funds, and the department does use the funds as an offset in the foundation program. However, he said the department did a policy memo a couple of years ago to school districts that were claiming the four-year-olds. The memo said if districts claim four-year- olds, then the department will count [those districts] impact aid in the foundation program, he explained. MR. JEANS said if the district does not claim four-year-olds, it can keep all of the impact aid. He said unless the districts give him the actual numbers, he does not know what the actual impact to the foundation program will be. Mr. Jeans said districts have been claiming four-year-olds, so the department has been counting all the impact aid. He said if this legislation passes, it will be the district's responsibility to notify "us" about how much impact aid is attributed to four- year-olds, so the department can [take] it out of the calculations. Mr. Jeans said the voucher covers all students in the district that reside on Native land, and until the districts provide him with that identifying information, he cannot answer that question. Number 0363 REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER asked if districts have that information. MR. JEANS, in response, said districts do have that information; those students that reside on Native land are funded at 125 percent of the base student allocation under the impact aid law. He said the department can only consider 100 percent, so 25 percent comes right off the table for the state to consider, and the state deducts 90 percent of the remaining funds. He reiterated that districts have to provide that information to the department. REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER asked Mr. Jeans how much funding goes to rural Alaska and how much goes to urban Alaska. MR. JEANS pointed to a spreadsheet attached to the fiscal note. He said the Department of Education and Early Development always looks at the question of REAAs [Rural Education Attendance Areas] versus municipalities. REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER said the figures she has shows 92 percent is used in REAAs and 8 percent is used in municipalities. She asked Mr. Jeans if that is close to what the department had calculated. MR. JEANS asked if Representative Kapsner is referring to the funding for four-year-olds. In response to Representative Kapsner, he said he has not done that calculation. Mr. Jeans offered to identify the REAAs and do that calculation. Number 0444 REPRESENTATIVE GATTO asked what the fiscal note would be if every school in the state offered a two-year kindergarten program. MR. JEANS, in response, said the department projects that if all schools districts were to enroll all four-year-olds, the cost to the state would be approximately $60 million. REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER asked if there is a move underway for all districts to utilize this two-year kindergarten program. CHAIR WILSON commented that the schools in her district are in trouble, and if those schools could add more students, they would be very happy to do that. She said this would be a way to get more education funding in her district. REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER said she noted in her research that areas that the state is short in numbers is not in the first years, but later on. While she did not have the research with her, she said she believed it was fifth grade through seventh grade, not primary grades, kindergarten, or pre-kindergarten that are short in numbers. She asked if it was true that most schools have a lot of students in primary grades. Number 0559 MR. JEANS said he has had calls from all around the state from both REAAs and municipal school districts inquiring about the ability to claim four-year-olds for foundation funding. MR. JEANS said that is the question that needs to be addressed - was the foundation program intended to fund four-year old students. He said the department's position is that the statute allows for the exceptional child, but was not intended to [fund] all four-year-olds. Mr. Jeans reiterated that this is a policy call the legislature needs to make. If the legislature wants to fund all four-year-olds, that is not a problem; the department will put it in the funding formula and all four-year-olds will be funded, he explained. Mr. Jeans said it is not just the foundation funding formula, but it also applies to school construction. Once the legislature funds those children, those students become eligible for space under school construction, he said. It is not just the foundation, but a broader policy issue, and the department is asking for clarification on whether the legislature wants to fund four-year-olds through the public school foundation program, Mr. Jeans explained. He said it is the department's motivation on this bill. CHAIR WILSON commented that one of the school systems in her district is ready to fall below the 425 [student] mark, and if that school could bring four-year-olds in to bring that figure back up, it would do it. Number 0654 REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL moved to report CSHB 154(EDU) out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. Number 0664 REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER objected to the motion. She reiterated her belief that the state has been playing the remediation game for too long. She said there is a wide consensus that the third grade is an important benchmark. Representative Kapsner suggested that teachers and parents know if a child is not reading by the third grade, there is slim to none chance of that child catching up, because up to the third grade children are learning to read. She said in fourth grade students are reading to learn, and a student cannot learn math or science without knowing how to read. Furthermore, she said there is also a lot of evidence that children that come out of homes that are not "print rich" and do not put a cultural value to reading, do not come to school comfortable with reading. Representative Kapsner said it gets really hard in first and second grade to make those connections. Number 0764 REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER told the committee she believed that the implementation of the high school qualifying exam needs to be countered with upstream measures to ensure that a lot of kids are not falling through the "cracks." She said she knows it is the parents' issue, and as a parent she puts a high priority in reading to her son every day. Representative Kapsner said she does not believe that schools that are putting a high priority on getting kids ready for the third grade benchmark should be penalized. Number 0788 REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA agreed with Representative Kapsner. She shared her experience that as a parent, she did not see parents trying to get their kids in school early unless there was a very good reason. She said she sees this program as an enrichment that is vital and she would not be comfortable voting for the bill. Number 0845 CHAIR WILSON responded that she does not disagree with comments that have been made. She said it is a policy issue, and there needs to be a grassroots effort across the state on the part of parent-teacher organizations, Native corporations, and other groups to work on this issue. She pointed out that the state is having trouble funding education at the same level as last year, and if the legislature wants to add a two-year kindergarten program, that adds another $60 million in funding. REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER said so many of communities do not have learning environments for preschoolers. In Bethel, for instance, she said she is lucky if she can find a dependable, sober home to send her son to. She said she has to be comfortable knowing that he will sit in front of the television watching Power Rangers all day, and that there will not be group activities that will prepare him for kindergarten. Representative Kapsner pointed out that Florida instituted a four-year old kindergarten program statewide. She said she knows the state is having trouble funding it, but she feels that is a direction the state should be moving in, if this were a perfect world. She said she would like to sponsor legislation that would do that. If these kids miss out by third grade, it is hard to get them back on track, she remarked. Number 0967 The committee took an at-ease from 3:19 p.m. to 3:22 p.m. Number 0993 REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL restated his motion to move CSHB 154(EDU) out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. Number 0996 REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER objected. Number 1000 A roll call vote was taken. Representatives Wilson, Gatto, Coghill, and Wolf voted in favor of CSHB 154(EDU). Representatives Cissna and Kapsner voted against it. Therefore, CSHB 154(EDU) was reported out of the House Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committee by a vote of 4-2.
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