Alaska school boards to weigh tax-credit scholarships, immigration enforcement near schools

Alaska's statewide school boards association on Thursday released 14 proposed resolutions from seven local school boards, including requests that it support scholarship groups for public school students under a new federal tax credit and urge immigration authorities to avoid enforcement near schools.

The Association of Alaska School Boards, based in Juneau, has a membership of more than 330 local school board members.

Each November, voting delegates from member boards adopt resolutions that set the association's positions, collected in a book called Where We Stand, and guide its advocacy in the next legislative session. This summer, for example, it told federal regulators that cutting the E-Rate internet subsidy would force Alaska districts to choose between paying for broadband and paying teachers.

A resolutions committee will review the proposals Nov. 5 at the association's annual conference in Anchorage, and delegates vote Nov. 8. Members can pull any resolution for amendment or deletion, and districts can introduce new ones from the floor.

Scholarships

The Anchorage School Board voted 7-0 this month to ask the association to support scholarship-granting organizations dedicated to public school students.

Starting in January, donors to state-approved scholarship groups can claim a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 a year, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved the first 20 groups Oct. 2. Students in public, charter, correspondence, private and religious schools may qualify for the scholarships.

The association's current position opposes using public funds for private, parochial or home school programs "whether through vouchers, tax credits, or individual K-12 savings accounts." Anchorage's proposal would back only groups dedicated to public school students, and it says their scholarships "must supplement, and never supplant, public funding."

Immigration

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District's proposal would have the association urge federal immigration authorities to "refrain from enforcement activities on or near school grounds and school transportation routes that may disrupt learning, discourage attendance or family participation, or undermine students' access to education."

It also encourages districts to adopt policies guiding how staff respond to immigration enforcement. It cites Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that children can't be denied a public education because of their immigration status.

Sitka's seven

Half of the proposals come from the Sitka School District. One affirms local boards' authority to set policies for choosing and reconsidering classroom and library materials, and opposes state mandates that would impose "statewide reading lists, removal lists, or review processes" in place of local procedures.

Others ask the state to require and pay for dyslexia screening for every student in kindergarten through second grade, and to fund help for chronically absent students, students experiencing homelessness, threat assessment teams, cybersecurity and responsible use of artificial intelligence.

Mandates and travel

Nome's school board wants the association to urge the Legislature to pay for any mandate requiring students to learn a specific topic and to count district costs in the fiscal notes attached to bills, citing the Alaska Reads Act and a CPR training requirement.

Nome also proposes asking lawmakers to study the pandemic's effects on students and pay to bring them back to grade level.

The North Slope Borough School District says Alaska School Activities Association rules require some off-road-system districts, including it and the Juneau and Kodiak districts, to provide or help pay for travel by visiting teams. Its proposal would have the association ask ASAA, the Legislature and the governor to set up an equitable way to pay for activity travel.

Kodiak's school board proposes that every public and private middle and high school in Alaska be required to have suicide prevention, mental health support or outreach led by a student organization.

Cordova's proposal on artificial intelligence and computer science says local boards must keep final authority over curriculum and that state money must come before any state mandate in those subjects. It opposes a statewide AI or computer science graduation requirement "at this time."