Divided vote in Alaska House stalls major education bill

JUNEAU — Alaska House Republicans on Monday fell short of securing enough votes to advance education priorities, ending the process of approving funding increases for Alaska schools that education advocates say are sorely needed. made it difficult to navigate.

Twenty House Republicans want to attach increased funding for public schools to Republican-backed measures, including increasing public funding for homeschooled students and increasing the number of public charter schools in the state. Voted in favor of hearing the proposal. The other 20 councilors voted against it.

The result was a divided chamber left in a familiar place: limbo.

Education has dominated the conversation in Congress since the session began last month. The mostly Republican House majority is pushing back on school funding in an effort to quickly quell the Legislature's demands to override Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy's veto of about $87 million in school funding last year. He pledged to take prompt action.

However, the 23-member House majority includes three non-Republicans: independent Rep. Bryce Edgmon (Dillingham), Democratic Rep. CJ McCormick (Bethel), and Democratic Rep. Neal Foster (Nome). , all of which opposed policies developed by the Republican Party. .

On Monday, the 20 Republicans who make up the majority painted an all-or-nothing picture. They argued that a vote against the omnibus bill was a vote against education funding itself.

“To stop now is to surrender. I'm not prepared to surrender,” Rep. Craig Johnson, an Anchorage Republican, said while waving a white piece of paper in the air, asking House members to respond to his proposal. He called on them to reconsider their position. he defended.

“A lot of things go away with this vote today. So I ask you to examine your souls — are we better off surrendering? Or at least being scrutinized?” Johnson said. asked.

But the other half of the chamber rejected that premise. With only a few weeks left in the annual legislative session, House members from the Democratic-controlled minority say there is still time to more carefully consider their approach to developing the state's education policy.

Opponents of the Republican plan pointed to the unusual process used to bring the proposal to a vote. Republicans will try to incorporate their ideas into a bill that has already passed the Senate and gone through a committee hearing process in the House, avoiding the possibility of lengthy public comment and scrutiny over the bill's impact on the state's finances. It was.

“You can complain all you want about the process. This process is what it is and it's been done many times before,” Johnson said.

House Republicans have proposed a plan that would add $77 million a year to the state's per-student system. Bonus payments to teachers amount to $58 million. At least $40 million for home-schooled students. And provisions aimed at increasing the number of charter schools in Alaska were put in place instead of simply increasing the per-pupil funding formula.

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Education advocates say the state's school spending would need to increase by more than $350 million a year to cover several years without adjusting for inflation. A bipartisan Senate majority passed a bill last year that increased state spending by $175 million.

But Dunleavy and House Republicans say directly increasing school funding without changing how the money is spent is unacceptable. They cite Alaska students' low scores on reading and math assessments. Alaska educators say such scores are partly due to flat funding. School administrators told lawmakers that in recent years, across-the-board funding measures have forced schools to cut teacher jobs, increase class sizes and eliminate special programs, leading to lower student performance. says it is difficult to deal with. The state's largest school districts all face multimillion-dollar deficits next year.

Early in Monday's floor debate, Anchorage Independent Minority Leader Calvin Schrage called the Republican proposal a “Frankenstein monster of a bill.”

Schrage said the majority presented lawmakers with a choice: “Either we accept our monster education, or we accept our villain education.”

“That's unacceptable,” he said.

Edgmon, an independent majority member, said he did not know how he would vote on the proposal when voting began Monday.

“I really struggled with a lot of things,” Edgemon said. “I didn't know which button to press.”

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After “thorough soul searching” and conversations with other members of the Bush caucus representing rural areas, Edgmon decided he could not vote in favor of a bill that did not go through the traditional vetting process. he said.

Rep. David Eastman, a right-wing Wasilla Republican who is not part of the majority caucus, called the bill “undermining public transparency” before voting against it.

On Monday morning, the House of Representatives appeared ready for battle. Dozens of amendments were drafted. Educators filled the public gallery. But a 20-20 vote on a procedural question about whether to hire a replacement committee for the bill, which includes amendments sought by House Republicans, quickly ended the impending legislative fight.

After the vote failed, several House Republicans spoke in favor of holding another vote to reconsider the measure, but that did not happen Monday.

During the lunch break, which began at 1 p.m. and lasted until after 5 p.m., House members worked behind closed doors to come up with a deal that satisfied a majority of members. Failing that, they adjourned until 11 a.m. Tuesday.

“I don't think the plan is off track,” House Speaker Kathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, said after the day's session. “With so much policy and so many policies out there, people are trying to understand where they are.”

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Schrage has complained that the minority minority has not been included in the House's education negotiations, but called Monday's closed session a “good first discussion” and said there is “a path forward that is fully funded.” I look forward to exploring it again.” public education. “

Johnson said he expected all members of the majority, including non-Republicans, to vote in favor of moving forward with the omnibus bill.

“I'm not disappointed in anything. I just keep going,” Johnson said.

Johnson said plans remain to debate the omnibus bill on Tuesday.

Monday's vote came more than a week after majorities in both chambers formed negotiating teams to hammer out a bipartisan compromise on the education bill. But Sen. Loki Tobin, an Anchorage Democrat who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said those negotiations ended without any resolution.

“It has become abundantly clear that the House majority is not a binding caucus, which means any level of negotiation will be difficult,” Tobin said Monday. He said the House majority group had decided “to continue moving forward without further negotiations.”

“We've been working on policy, but we haven't gotten to the core of, 'This is the language that's going to be introduced,'” Tobin said.

Sean Maguire reported from Juneau and Iris Samuels from Anchorage.

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