SCR 15-AMEND UNIFORM RULES: STANDING COMMITTEES  CHAIR MCGUIRE announced the consideration of SCR 15. TIM LAMKIN, Staff to Senator Gary Stevens, said SCR 15 comes from the Joint Legislative Education Task Force as its first and immediate recommendation for this session, and it establishes a standing committee on education. It also calls for a recurring review of the funding formula, regular updates of the district cost factors, review of programs and policies within the Department of Education and Early Development, and review of policies of the University of Alaska. Considering Alaska's constitutional obligation, many feel that Alaska should have an educational standing committee. Alaska is one of only three states that do not have one. 9:10:37 AM SENATOR STEVENS said it became clear to him when he came to the legislature that it would be reasonable to have this standing committee. Chair Davis of the Health, Education, and Social Services (HESS) Committee is very supportive. That committee wanted to keep education in the past, but the current chair is supportive. It seems that the university has mainly responded to the Finance Committee, which is valid because of fiscal issues, but the university has gotten short shrift on its programs. 9:12:10 AM CARL ROSE, Executive Director, Association of Alaska School Boards, said he served on the task force and has never seen such a broad number of issues with consensus. "It is all before you now." Education is quite complicated, and in the course of a legislative session people will have only a few minutes to testify. It is difficult to get congruence about many aspects of K-12 education. Alaska spends $1 billion every year on it, and there are a number of issues. The task force identified things that could be worked on, and some things were more complicated and needed more time. He said people wanted to look at the 20 percent block grant, which is the amount that goes to special, vocational, and bilingual education. How that is distributed is difficult to deal with in a committee. He continued: What it requires is some time, as well as issues of, maybe, intervention on the no-child-left-behind reconstitution of governance and schools. You look at the mandated nature of legislation that may be regulations that we face: the local, the state, and the federal role in education - these things become very, very complicated. It's our hope, and it was the hope of the task force, that we would be able to create a standing committee who could deal with these issues and give it the due diligence that they require. … This is an effort to try to give you the time you need to make better decisions, and I hope you look favorably on this piece of legislation. 9:15:18 AM RICHARD LUTHER, Legislative Liaison, Department of Education, said the administration supports SCR 15. There are major issues the task force didn't have time to deal with. Some of these unresolved issues include charter and correspondence schools, block grants, vocational and technical programs, required local effort, and pre-K education. These are major issues that require a lot of time, and a special committee will allow that. 9:16:40 AM JOHN ALCANTRA, Director, Government Relations, NEA-Alaska, said he agrees with previous comments. He said Senator Stevens spent 8 to 10 full days last summer on the task force. "It was the first time that education had ample time to go through issues … and all of them were not addressed." The Senate has a special committee on education that has been shoehorned into a one-hour timeframe with members that have to head off to other committees. Making education a standing committee and elevating the K-12 and university budgets "will certainly help." NEA- Alaska members just had their 52nd annual delegate assembly, and they have been trying to see this happen for years. 9:18:11 AM KIKI ABRAHAMSON, Teacher, Homer, Fireweed Academy Charter School, said her school has existed for 11 years, and it has been doing a great job with an innovative curriculum. She has six of her students with her, and has brought them to the hearings at the Legislative Information Office in Homer. They all support SCR 15. All educators and members in the community are in favor of having a separate education committee. CHAIR MCGUIRE said she is glad students are involved. She asked if the HESS committee needs its name changed in SCR 15. SENATOR STEVENS said line 12 of page 1 changes the title and duties of that committee. 9:20:55 AM SENATOR FRENCH said he is confused about the structure of SCR 15. It appears to be making two amendments in the same section. MR. LAMKIN said an amendment effectively sunsets the committee in 2013. SENATOR FRENCH surmised that Section 1 would take effect immediately, and Section 2 would take effect on the first th regular session of the 28 legislature. "So, it sunsets the education committee." SENATOR STEVENS said that was the desire of the previous committee. He wasn't excited about that, but he now thinks it may make sense to relook at it. SENATOR BUNDE moved to adopt, as a working document, the committee substitute (CS) for SCR 15, labeled 25-LS1348\C. Hearing no objection, Version C was before the committee. 9:23:32 AM SENATOR GREEN said she is the only person in Alaska that opposes this, and she only opposes it because it causes difficulties in the Senate - not so much for the House. The Senate has difficulty getting members into standing committees who are not conflicted. The special committee can meet every day if it needs to. "We can more clearly outline with our special committee that all legislation will be forwarded to it and it will be responsible for all education issues." Knowing the difficulty of scheduling and filling all of the committees, another standing committee will be next to impossible, she explained. SENATOR FRENCH said that is a good point because everyone is stressed by the 90-day session. He hopes that this committee will not result in extra bill referrals. He suggested not simply adding an education committee referral without dropping it from other committees. There should be the same amount of committee work but just redistributed. "If we do it right we should be creating some time from a reduced workload in other committees." It should compartmentalize the work. 9:25:51 AM CHAIR MCGUIRE said the Senate is "a lot harder" than the House. "You really are stretched with 20 members." She hopes that the issues of health and social services attract enough people, and that members are not just interested in education. Education is a popular issue. Health and social services can be tough because there is never enough money to go around and the issues are difficult. The sunset provision may address that. SENATOR FRENCH moved CSSCR 15(SED) from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). Hearing no objections, it was so ordered.