SEDC-260516-1100

Good afternoon, everyone. I call this meeting of the Senate Education Committee to order. It is Saturday, May 16th, 11:31 a.m. here in the Belz Committee Room in our State Capitol Capitol Building located in beautiful downtown Juneau. For the folks who are here in the room, I just want to remind you to mute your cell phones. Documents for today's meetings have been distributed to members.

They have been uploaded to BASIS. That's akleg.gov. And there's additional copies right there by the door. Members present today are Vice Chair President Stevens, Senator Keel, Senator Bjorkman, and myself, Senator Lukey Geltobin. Please let the record reflect we do have a quorum to conduct business.

I want to thank Kyla from the Juneau LIO for moderating today's meeting and Mary Gwen with Senate Records for being here to document today's meeting. On the agenda today is the second hearing for House Bill 261, education funding. We do have before us a committee substitute for House Bill 261, that is version O, which has been distributed to members. We have Mr. Mason here to explain us the statement of changes from version T to version O. Mr. Mason. Good morning, Mike Mason.

I am staff to Senator Tobin. This is the explanation of the changes from version T, which was adopted as your working document yesterday, to the new version O. There's really just one change. It is to add a language basically calling for full funding for pre-K students. So if you go to Section 1, Version 0 amends the statute governing early education to allow enrolled pre-K— pre-kindergarten students to count as full-time students in the average daily membership rather than one-half.

Section 16 of Version 0 repeals statutes repealing the Alaska Reads Act district-approved pre-kindergarten program sunset clauses under Section 47, Chapter 40, SLA 2022. In the enrolled version of the Alaska REIDS Act, there are statutes that set the repeal of the current prekindergarten funding system in the year 2034. Section 16 removes those repeals, thereby protecting prekindergarten funding in perpetuity. Section 17 of version O repeals AS 1417-500 subsection F. That's the statute limiting state funding for district-approved prekindergarten programs. And then Section 19 version O repeals the limits on prekindergarten foundation formula funding.

Funding that caps the annual funds at $3 million. So essentially, those are the changes from version T, which you adopted yesterday, to the new version O. Are there any questions from committee members? Seeing none, President Stevens. Madam Chair, I move to adopt the committee substitute for House Bill 261, work order 34-LS1293-O, as our working document.

Without objection, Work Order 34-LS1293/o is adopted as our working document. Representative Story, do you have any final words before we take action?

Good morning, Senator Tobin and Senate Education Committee members. For the record, Andy Story representing the North Mendenhall Valley, Haines, Skagway, Klukwan, Gustavus. The bill before you today, I agree wholeheartedly with the amendments just adopted. I think that this legislature has an incredible chance to provide more stability to our communities, to our teaching staff, to our families, and stabilizing how we do our education budget funding process. So I strongly urge, um, something that allows us to give our teachers their contracts earlier in the spring.

It's critical to increasing student achievement, and that is something that I have been so sad about these last many years. We are focusing on budgets and redoing budgets and worry and angst, and not— it just It takes us away from what we're trying to do to give our kids the best education possible. So this bill, and again, this is nothing that I thought up. This is a bill that is based on a state— 26 other states are doing this and providing more stability and able to keep their beloved educators. So if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them, but I think this would be transformational for our state.

Really positive step. So thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Representative Story. You've been such a significant champion for our educators and for our education community, and this work is an incredible example of your dedication and passion. Any other questions from committee members?

Seeing none, President Stevens. Madam Chair, I move to report House Bill 261, work order 34-LS1293/o, from the Senate Education Committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes Senate Education Committee gives legislative legal authority to make technical and conforming changes to the bill. Without objection, House Bill 261, Work Order 34-LS1293\O, is reported from the Senate Education Committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. This concludes our agenda for today. We do not know if the Senate Education Committee will be meeting again, so please just keep your keep eyes on the announcements that will be on BASIS, and also if you have not signed up at the education newsletter, I encourage folks to do so, so they can get Mike Mason's meeting notifications.

With that, as there's no other business before us today, I will adjourn us at 11:36 AM.