SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE January 29, 1993 1:38 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT Senator Steve Rieger, Chairman Senator Bert Sharp, Vice Chairman Senator Loren Leman MEMBERS ABSENT Senator Mike Miller Senator Jim Duncan Senator Johnny Ellis Senator Judith Salo COMMITTEE CALENDAR Alaska State Board of Education Presentation: Alaska 2000 WITNESS REGISTER Joe Montgomery, Chairman Board of Education 1048 Beech Lane Anchorage, Alaska Robert Walp, Second Vice Chairman Board of Education 804 P Street, #4 Anchorage, Alaska 99501-3252 John Hotzfield, School Board Member 5890 Liberty Court Wasilla, Alaska 99687-9345 Don Fancher, School Board Member P.O. Box 2027 Bethel, Alaska 99559 Judy Norton, School Board Member 9824 Atka Circle Eagle River, Alaska 99577 June Nelson, School Board Member P.O. Box 158 Kotzebue, Alaska 99752-0158 Karen Meehan, Student Advisor 3640 Chiniak Bay Anchorage, Alaska 99515 Jerry Covey, Commissioner Department of Education 801 W. 10th Street Juneau, Alaska 99801-1984 Leo Land Haines, Alaska 99827 ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 93-6, SIDE A Number 001 SENATOR STEVE RIEGER called the Health, Education, and Social Services Committee meeting to order at 1:38 p.m. and introduced Joe Montgomery, Chairman, State Board of Education. JOE MONTGOMERY said he appreciated being invited to the meeting and introduced the members of the Board who were present. Number 42 ROBERT WALP, Second Vice Chairman, State Board of Education, gave an overview of his career with eduction in Alaska. He said the main goals were to create conditions where there is greater parental involvement in education, accountability in terms of effectiveness of the schools, and expanding the choice of school opportunities for students. They are also modestly reforming the school finance system. Number 142 MR. WALP said their long range goal is to develop a school system that graduates world class students who have demonstrated communication skills, logical thinking, creativity, vocational and technical skills, citizenship, health and fitness, and responsibility. He is concerned about the number of children who don't have at least one parent or adult who will nurture, support, and discipline him so he can complete school. Number 222 SENATOR LEMAN asked him how many children he was talking about. JOHN HOTZFIELD, School Board Member, said a rough estimate was 26% of school children were in dysfunctional homes in the Mat-Su Borough. Number 250 DON FANCHER, new Board member, supported the Alaska 2000 recommendations. Number 323 JUDY NORTON said she has been a teacher for the last 20 years. She chaired the Committee on Choice for the Alaska 2000. She said there is encouragement from top educators who want parent involvement. She feels that parents, even in dysfunctional homes, love their children and are willing to help if they are invited. She thought it was important to involve the parents in making the decisions on how their children would be educated. MS. NORTON said they feel that charter schools are empowering parents to educate their children the way they want them to be educated. She thinks it comes down to either the educators own the system or the parents, and she thinks the parents do. Number 400 SENATOR SHARP said he had been briefed on the potential for charter schools and he looked forward to getting more information in this respect. SENATOR LEMAN said he thought the primary responsibility for education should be the parent and that the teacher, in turn, is empowered by the parent. He asked how the dysfunctional family problem could be helped. MS. NORTON said "dysfunctional" is a term being used as an excuse for not providing some children with a good education. SENATOR LEMAN said his impression is that in rural Alaska parents are a little bit closer to their schools than in urban centers. Number 484 SENATOR RIEGER asked if more charter schools would be initiated by teachers or parents if these Alaska 2000 recommendations passed. MS. NORTON said she thought there were many teachers who wanted a chance to change the system. Number 500 SENATOR RIEGER asked what were the parameters of what was permissible in a charter school. MS. NORTON said they must follow all the state and local district regulations and an advisory program would make the decisions. Number 530 SENATOR LEMAN commented that one of the reasons for success in home schooling is that there are different ages of students all present in the learning environment so they can learn from each other. Number 557 JUNE NELSON, Kotzebue Board member, said she has been involved with school boards over the past 20 years. She viewed Alaska 2000 as a method to make much needed changes. She thought these recommendations would allow local control and provide a means for accountability. She does support the concept of charter schools, although she thought they would be more compatible to urban centers. TAPE 93-6, SIDE B Number 579 SENATOR LEMAN asked if charter schools would be a possibility in Kotzebue? MS. NELSON thought they might work if they existed in other areas for a while so they could learn about them first. Number 535 KAREN MEEHAN, Anchorage Board member, said she was excited about the standards that are being established with math, english, and science through Alaska 2000. She was very excited about the Certificate of Mastery in this respect. SENATOR RIEGER asked from the student perspective were the present standards not high enough. MS. MEEHAN answered that they weren't. SENATOR SHARP asked if she noticed any difference in parental involvement between good students and students who didn't do quite as well. MS. MEEHAN answered said there was a direct correlation between good students whose parents were involved with their education. She knew, also, there was a possibility of a student excelling without their parents being directly involved with the school. SENATOR RIEGER asked her what she thought about the increase in the length of the school year. MS. MEEHAN supported it. Number 526 JOHN HOTZFIELD, Wasilla Board member, said he received his schooling from a Christian School which had no funding from the state. They operated on parental involvement completely. He strongly supported the Alaska 2000 recommendations. MR. HOTZFIELD commented that a third of the state budget goes into the education system, but it is hard to account for it. He said his Christian School operated at $2000 per child. Their children come out with very good scores. They have a very low student/teacher ratio. There is a lot of love and education involved in the program. There aren't many regulations. He encouraged the committee members to look at the Alaska School Price Index formulated by DOE and try to understand how they came up with the figures. Sixty five percent of the budget goes to certificated staff, another twenty percent goes to non-certificated staff, the final fifteen percent goes to non-personnel. He thought the plan was equitable for the whole state, although there was room for improvement. He supported giving accountability to the districts by allotting certain percentages of funding to them and then they had to decide how to distribute. He said they could be successful with a lot less money in the public education system. SENATOR LEMAN commented in Anchorage $6000 - $6500 per year was being spent on each student. He thought when parents are involved more in education there is more accountability. Number 341 JERRY COVEY, Commissioner of the Department of Education, said first of all they needed to define some goals and standards. He said they have a billion dollar a year system that doesn't know where it's going. He said the public has to answer the question, "What do we want out of our public education system?" How to do it is the question for him and all the other public school employees to decide. Number 304 ROBERT WALP said an advisory board for each school would support the concept of more involvement. He commented that in Japan the students do the janitorial work in the schools which gives them some accountability. Number 249 MR. MONTGOMERY said the School Board meets 12 times a year and schedules their meetings in Juneau when the legislature is in session. He invited the legislators to participate in their meetings. Number 210 LEO LAND told a story about his grandchild and agreed that there are problems in the system. SENATOR RIEGER thanked everyone for their participation and adjourned the meeting at 2:55 p.m.