By Jasz Garrett
Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – State Senator Jesse Kiehl joined Action Line on Tuesday. He responded to statements made by The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) Commissioner Dr. Deena Bishop last week regarding Senate Bill 140.
“I heard the Commissioner of Education of Early Development say, oh, the charter school provisions have been misunderstood. Don’t worry your heads about it. I just reread it on the way into the studio. It cuts local school boards out of charter school decisions. So, let’s go back to talking about investing in our schools and the budgets, right, because the dollars are where the notion meets the educational road, right? We him and haw all we want, but we put the bucks where you put them and that decides what you do,” he said. “Because you pay somebody to do work. That charter school provision, the way it’s written right now. The Juneau School District could do everything necessary, make every painful, and excruciating, nobody wants to make it decision that we have to do to get the schools on track. And the next year, a group could come in not to the Juneau School Board who we elect here in Juneau, but to the State Board of Education, who does not care about what the public thinks. They’ve made that abundantly clear in recent years.”
Many teachers and school representatives testified against SB 140 earlier this month, expressing their concern about a section of the bill that would allow the state board of education to directly authorize new charter schools. DEED Commissioner Dr. Deena Bishop spoke strongly in support of the bill.
