Legislature(2007 - 2008)BUTROVICH 205
01/30/2008 08:00 AM Senate SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB240 | |
| SCR15 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SCR 15 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | SB 240 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SCR 15-AMEND UNIFORM RULES: STANDING COMMITTEES
8:40:51 AM
CHAIR STEVENS announced the consideration of SCR 15.
TIM LAMKIN, staff, Senator Stevens, sponsor of SCR 15 said the
most immediate recommendation of the Joint Legislative Education
Funding Task Force (JLEFT) was to create a standing education
committee. Referring to a spread sheet of standing education
committees among state legislatures, he said he discovered that
there are only three states in the country that don't have a
stand-alone education committee in at least one body of the
legislature.
8:42:55 AM
CHAIR STEVENS said he thought the state should have a standing
committee. He said the biggest objection has been finding a time
to meet and members, but pointed out that there has been no
difficulty in filling the special committee.
SENATOR WILKEN said he didn't think having a standing education
committee was a good idea. He said he speaks with some
experience having chaired the HES committee for six years. He
said he never thought it was over-worked and, in the world of
90-day sessions, it's going to be a lot easier to stop
legislation. A standing committee would give a senate president
opportunity to make it difficult for legislation he or she may
not agree with. He also believed it would be difficult to man
the committee and noted that Alaska has one of the smallest
senates in the US. He suggested that if it is passed, it have a
mandatory sunset clause that can be revisited.
CHAIR STEVENS pointed out that in the past few years the
university only reports to the Finance Committee. He said he
thought the legislature should look at what the university is
doing, not just what it is spending, another reason, he said,
for a standing committee.
8:46:44 AM
SENATOR DAVIS said she has wanted to see a standing education
committee since she first joined the legislature in 1991. She
said HES has a lot of responsibility for one person to chair.
She said she has no problem with a sunset clause.
8:48:58 AM
SENATOR OLSON asked if educators will be presenting testimony.
EDDY JEANS, Director, School Finance, Alaska Department of
Education and Early Development, said the reason the task force
recommended the standing committee is because it recognized
other issues that needed to be addressed, issues considered this
summer on which the task force could not reach consensus. Much
more research and committee meetings will be required to get an
understanding of those issues. That includes charter schools,
correspondence and home schooling, special needs block grants,
vocational technology programs, required local effort, the Moore
Vs Alaska case, innovative and best practices grants, and
voluntary pre-K programs. The administration is supportive of a
standing committee and the concept of a five-year review.
CHAIR STEVENS said he would add university oversight to that
list.
8:51:13 AM
JOHN ALCANTRA, Director, Government Relations, NEA-Alaska, said
this past weekend the members passed a resolution in support of
this legislation. With the new 90-day session, a standing
committee on education will allow five senators and seven
representatives to focus on the issues that Mr. Jeans spoke of,
and it will give everything longer hearings. As mentioned by
other senators, there was no problem filling the five spots on
this special committee. This is important, he concluded.
8:53:00 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS moved to report SCR 15 from committee with
individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s).
SENATOR WILKEN proposed preparing a committee substitute to be
heard on Friday that would include the sunset amendment.
SENATOR OLSON said he wanted this to move as soon as possible
and was concerned about having a quorum on Friday.
8:56:35 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS said with 90-day sessions, he was concerned
about creating more committees for people to participate in.
SENATOR WILKEN said that if a majority member asks for a bill to
be assigned to their committee, he can't imagine that it would
be refused. He believed that a new committee would present an
opportunity for taking advantage of the ability to hold up a
bill.
SENATOR DAVIS said that could happen in a special committee as
easily as in a standing committee. If you want something to be
killed it can be done the way things are now.
CHAIR STEVENS said he's seen this happen mostly on the floor if
someone is chairing a committee and they realize that the bill
has not been assigned to them, they take an 'at ease' and ask
the President to add their committee to the referrals.
SENATOR DAVIS agreed that that was what she does as chair of the
HES Committee when bills with an education component.
SENATOR HUGGINS withdrew his motion [to move SCR 15].
9:01:26 AM
SENATOR OLSON said that the Department of Health, Education, and
Social Services has such big budgets and broad issues that
having a standing education committee allows people to have a
single committee they can go to and allows the chair of HES to
focus more on health and social services. He said because of
that he wanted to move the bill as soon as possible. He said if
it moves today, it needs to have Senator Wilken's amendment.
SENATOR OLSON moved to bring SCR 15 before the committee again.
There were no objections.
9:03:51 AM
SENATOR WILKEN moved conceptual Amendment 1 calling for a five-
year mandatory sunset.
SENATOR DAVIS cautioned that if this amendment is adopted, the
resolution will have to go back to the House for concurrence
because this bill was already passed.
CHAIR STEVENS asked for a roll call vote on conceptual Amendment
1. Senators Wilken, Huggins, Olson and Davis voted yea; Senator
Stevens voted nay; and conceptual Amendment 1 was adopted.
CHAIR STEVENS called for a roll call vote to move CSSCR 15(SED)
from the committee. Senator Davis, Olson, Wilken and Stevens
voted yea; Senator Huggins voted nay. Therefore, CSSCR 15(SED)
moved from committee.
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