Legislature(2007 - 2008)SENATE FINANCE 532
02/21/2008 03:00 PM Senate HEALTH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Civic Education Taskforce Final Report | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT MEETING
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
HOUSE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
February 21, 2008
3:08 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES
Senator Bettye Davis, Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Vice Chair
Senator Kim Elton
SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Charlie Huggins, Vice Chair
Senator Bettye Davis
Senator Donald Olson
Senator Fred Dyson
HOUSE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES
Representative Peggy Wilson, Chair
Representative Bob Roses, Vice Chair
Representative Anna Fairclough
Representative Wes Keller
Representative Berta Gardner
Representative Paul Seaton
MEMBERS ABSENT
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES
Senator John Cowdery
SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Gary Stevens, Chair
Senator Gary Wilken
HOUSE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES
Representative Sharon Cissna
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Civics Education Taskforce Final Report
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record.
WITNESS REGISTER
DIANE KELLER
Civics Education Taskforce Member
Mayor of Wasilla
Wasilla, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Read comments from the taskforce.
VICKI OTTE
Civics Education Taskforce Member
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke to the importance of improved civic
education.
JONATHAN KATCHER
Civics Education Taskforce Member
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Discussed the taskforce's recommendations.
ACTION NARRATIVE
CHAIR BETTYE DAVIS called the joint meeting of the Senate
Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committee and the
Senate Special Committee on Education and the House Health,
Education and Social Services Standing Committee to order at
3:08:48 PM. Present at the call to order were Senators Bettye
Davis, Joe Thomas, Charlie Huggins and Donald Olson;
Representatives Peggy Wilson, Bob Roses, Wes Keller, Anna
Fairclough and Berta Gardner. Senators Kim Elton and Fred Dyson
and Representative Paul Seaton arrived shortly thereafter.
^Civic Education Taskforce Final Report
3:10:21 PM
CHAIR DAVIS announced the committees would hear from the Civics
Education Taskforce. She introduced Diane Keller, Jonathon
Katcher, Vicki Otte and Carl Rose, director of the Association
of Alaska School Boards.
3:11:04 PM
Representative Seaton and Senator Elton joined the meeting.
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH told members that Ms. Otte is a
teacher at Gruening Middle School in her home town, Eagle River,
Alaska.
REPRESENTATIVE KELLER told members that Ms. Keller is his Mayor
and they are not related.
3:12:36 PM
DIANE KELLER, Taskforce Member and Mayor of Wasilla, read the
following comments into the record:
Thank you for the opportunity to serve on the Citizens
Advisory Taskforce on Civics Education. Again, my name
is Diane Keller and I am the mayor for the City of
Wasilla. Wasilla has a strong mayor form of government
which keeps me very busy because I am the CEO for
Wasilla. One aspect I take very seriously about my job
is the opportunity to interact with children in our
community and teach them about civic education and ask
them what that means to them.
I share with them that for more than 250 years,
Americans have shared a vision of a democracy in which
all citizens understand, appreciate, and engage
actively in civic and political life. In recent
decades, however, increasing numbers of Americans have
disengaged from civic and political institutions such
as voluntary associations, religious congregations,
community-based organizations, and political and
electoral activities such as voting and being informed
about public issues. Young people reflect these
trends. They are less likely to vote and are less
interested in political discussions and public issues
than either their older counterparts or young people
of past decades. As a result, many young Americans may
not be prepared to participate fully in our democracy
now and when they become adults.
Recognizing that individuals do not automatically
become free and responsible citizens but must be
educated for citizenship, scholars, judges, teachers,
civic leaders, local, state and federal policymakers
have with the encouragement of the President of the
United States, called for new strategies that can
capitalize on young people's idealism and their
commitment to service and voluntarism while addressing
their disengagement from political and civic
institutions. One of the most promising approaches to
increasing young people's informed engagement is
school-based civic education.
A few reasons why schools are such an important venue
for civic education are:
It is critical for the future health of our
democracy that all young people, including
those who are usually marginalized, be
knowledgeable, engaged in their communities
and in politics, and committed to the public
good.
Encouraging the development of civic skills
and attitudes among young people has been an
important goal of education and was the
primary impetus for originally establishing
public schools.
Schools are best equipped to address the
cognitive aspects of good citizenship, civic
and political knowledge, and related skills
such as critical thinking and deliberation.
Schools are communities in which young
people learn to interact, debate, and work
together with others, an important
foundation for future citizenship.
3:14:52 PM
Representative Berta Gardner joined the committees.
3:15:50 PM
Senator Dyson joined the meeting.
3:16:25 PM
VICKI OTTE, Teacher of American History and Civics at Gruening
Middle School and Member, Citizens' Advisory Taskforce on Civics
Education, said that she and 58 others from 13 countries were
sworn in as American citizens last Friday at 11:00 am at the
federal court house in Anchorage. In order to become a citizen
she had to fill out many forms, pay a $200 fee, reveal personal
information about herself, present legal documents, be finger
printed, submit to a character investigation by the FBI, take a
test on American History and Government, undergo a personal
interview to assess her ability to speak, read and write in
English, surrender all of her foreign travel documents, and
renounce princes, sovereigns and potentates. Finally she pledged
an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.
She said her students followed her progress and they had a
number of discussions about the process. She asked them what
they had to do to become citizens, and they answered "nothing."
She challenged them to name something in their daily lives that
was not affected by the local, state or federal government and
offered a $1 incentive if they could provide an example. None of
them could come up with an answer because there wasn't one.
Because the role of government is so important, she administered
the same test to them that she had to take, using the study
guide provided to her by U.S. Customs and Immigration. They did
very poorly, but she assured the committees that by the end of
the current school year, her students would understand the value
and the responsibility of citizenship. She highlighted her
commitment to the importance of civic education with a quote
from Kofi Annan:
"No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a
democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to
evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included
from birth."
3:20:39 PM
JONATHAN KATCHER, Member, Citizens' Advisory Taskforce on Civics
Education, said he had a report from the taskforce with some
recommendations he hoped the legislature would consider for next
year. He related a story about his teenage daughter, whose
eighth grade class was asked by their social studies teacher to
write an essay. Her essay became part of an endeavor put on by
the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and she won the Spenard
Award, then the state award, and then fourth place in the United
States for her essay about citizenship. The point he was making
was that most parents and students in the state are unaware of
the program and its potential rewards. Consequently the students
do not benefit, and the VFW does not get the maximum benefit
from its program. The task force recommended coordinating the
various programs that VFW and other civic organizations have to
offer.
3:23:38 PM
MR. KATCHER said it's more than teaching civics in the
classroom; it is having statewide opportunities that promote and
encourage people to be active participants in this civilization.
These programs encourage students to be good, civic-minded
adults.
The taskforce recommended an effort through the Department of
Education and the Lieutenant Governor's Office to coordinate
these programs around the state. They would like to see the
development of standards for civic education; assistance for
local school districts with the development of curriculum; and
professional development programs for civic education teachers
around the state.
The centerpiece of the effort would be an Alaska Council on
Civic Learning and a Coordinator for Civic Learning. The council
would be through the Lieutenant Governor's office and would work
through the Coordinator for Civic Learning in the Department of
Education to bring all of the various organizations together to
maximize and facilitate the programs that they believe would
promote and enhance civic education.
3:26:30 PM
MR. KATCHER closed by saying this is the most exciting year in
politics since 1968. At the same time there has been corruption
going on that could lead people to a degree of cynicism that
would be undermining. The decision he felt they needed to make
was whether to let the cynicism and lack of involvement
continue, or to capitalize on the current political motivation.
3:27:49 PM
MAYOR KELLER reminded everyone that the young people today would
be filling their shoes soon. She maintained that civic education
should start very young, through the family, and be reinforced
through the schools. She offered the following quote from John
Dewey:
"Democracy needs to be reborn in each generation and
education is its midwife. When we fail to educate our
children about history and our representative
democracy, we miss an opportunity to enrich our
children's lives. We also miss an opportunity to
enrich our country through their involvement. Our
responsibility is to teach our children the American
story. We must instill in our young people a deep and
abiding understanding and appreciation of our
heritage."
Alaskan educators, students, and community members place a high
value on meaningful civic learning in our schools, yet research
both statewide and nationally shows a steady decline in the
attention paid to advancing civic learning opportunities. As the
research from the Final Report of the Alaska Civic Learning
Assessment Project indicates, the state of civics knowledge and
awareness among Alaskans is not what it should be. Young
Alaskans will not learn the privileges and responsibilities of
citizenship unless we teach them. We hope that through the
research and recommendations included in this report, we can
help elevate the importance of educating for citizenship in
Alaska and ensure that our young people have what they need to
commit to a life-long civic engagement. The strength of our
democracy and the health of our community demand no less.
In closing, Mayor Keller offered a quote from Thomas Jefferson.
"The qualifications for self-government are not
innate. They are the results of habit and long
training."
3:30:20 PM
MAYOR KELLER thanked the committee for its support of HCR 6 and
for the opportunity to present their recommendations.
3:30:44 PM
CO-CHAIR DAVIS said she hoped the legislature would be able to
do something with the program next year.
CO-CHAIR WILSON asked when the taskforce was organized and how
long they had been working on their recommendations.
MAYOR KELLER said their first meeting was in September 2007 and
they met four times in Anchorage.
REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER recalled a roundtable discussion on civic
engagement at the University of Alaska, and asked if the
taskforce members participated in it.
MAYOR KELLER said she did not.
3:32:40 PM
MS. OTTE said they didn't even know about the roundtable, and
felt that was an illustration of the need for a coordinated
approach.
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Co-Chair Davis adjourned the meeting at 3:35:46 PM.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|