State School Proposal Targets Trans Athletes

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Category: State News

Created on Wednesday, 31 May 2023 15:56

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By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

The state of Alaska is proceeding with plans to limit transgender students’ ability to participate in sports and activities.

On June 8, the state board of education will consider a regulation that would bar transgender student-athletes from participating in school sports and activities under their gender identity. It would limit students to either multi-gender sports teams or “a separate team for each sex with participation based on a student’s sex assigned at birth.”

The meeting was announced in a public notice published Sunday.

The board’s June 8 decision is unlikely to be final: The board will be voting only on whether or not to advance the proposal to a 30-day public comment period. A yes vote means the board would consider public comment, then approve, reject or amend the regulation at its next public meeting. A “no” vote could kill the idea, at least temporarily.

“Right now, the board is going to vote on whether or not to put these out for public comment,” said Heidi Teshner, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

“We will always take all public comment into consideration,” she said.

The publicly posted agenda says the draft regulation is still subject to review and approval by the Alaska Department of Law, but Teshner said she expects no substantive changes between what’s online and what will be considered at the meeting.

Twenty-one states bar transgender students from participating in sports or other activities under their preferred gender identities, and various state school sports organizations have issued a variety of rules nationwide.

For the past three years, the Alaska Legislature has failed to pass a bill that would set statewide policy on the topic.

Nationally, supporters of these rules have said that women’s sports would be harmed by the participation of transgender athletes. Transgender rights advocates disagree, and have said that athletes should be able to participate in sports that conform with their identities.

The draft regulation under consideration by the state school board cites a state law that requires equal opportunity for male and female athletes and says that the board should consider procedures on an annual basis to implement that law.

In March, the school board approved a resolution asking the Department of Education to draft a regulation like the one that is now on its June agenda. 

That resolution referred only to girls sports; the new proposed regulation refers to both boys and girls teams.

Current rules in place by the Alaska School Activities Association, in charge of regulating school sports here, allow individual districts to set policies. 

ASAA considered but rejected a statewide policy earlier this month, saying that it would await regulatory action by the state.

The department’s proposed regulation doesn’t say how it would be enforced. Teshner said that would be an issue left to the discretion of ASAA or another, similar organization regulating the sport or activity.

Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, is an outspoken opponent of the new proposal and said that when she learned about it from the Beacon on Tuesday, it was “very much expected,” given prior actions by the board.

Teshner informed Tobin and other legislators in April that drafting work was underway.

She and other lawmakers have questioned the legality of the plan, saying that it could amount to the department adopting regulations without legislative authority.

She also said that forcing students to provide medical records or undergo physical exams to fulfill the regulation is a violation of their right to privacy, something enshrined in the Alaska Constitution.

“There’s so many questions I have — particularly when we get to some of the smaller schools,” she said, “not to mention, the stigmatization and the continued demonization of a group of really vulnerable young kids.”

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Legislators Add $7.5M To Child Care Funding

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Category: State News

Created on Tuesday, 30 May 2023 16:12

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By Claire Stremple

Alaska Beacon

The waitlist at the child care center Lori Berrigan runs in Palmer doubled this last year. There are 250 children on it. Berrigan said she’s running LifeWays at capacity, but the business is barely breaking even.

“We’re not profitable, even with 250 kids on our waitlist, because we’re providing quality care. And you can’t provide quality care without paying your workers well,” she said.

Berrigan said she had to increase wages 30-40% to retain her staff. That means she has to raise her rates 30% starting this June. She said pandemic-era federally funded stabilization grants helped keep her business afloat, but even with the significant increase in her rates, she would have to consider shutting down if it weren’t for help from the state.

“I’m hoping that this is going to continue to be a viable thing,” she said. “I’m going to see how this year goes. And then I may have to make hard decisions.”

Advocates for child care contacted lawmakers about funding problems statewide and the effort appears to have had an impact. The Legislature put an additional $7.5 million towards grants for child care providers in the coming year’s budget bill.

More work to be done

The funding is half the amount advocates say it would take to boost wages and stabilize the industry. Some lawmakers say they have more work to do.

Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, said she’s hugely supportive of funding child care centers. She’s the leader of the bipartisan Senate majority caucus.

She said that reliable, safe child care affects the mental health outcomes of the state’s population in the future.

“We save money by appropriating for these vital services now,” she said. “The Senate majority leadership certainly saw the need for that for next year.”

The Senate approved $15 million for child care, but that didn’t get enough support among the Republican led House majority caucus.

“My goal is to spend a lot more time talking with House counterparts,” Giessel said. “I didn’t communicate as effectively as I should have.”

The $7.5 million currently in the budget still needs to be approved by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has the authority to veto all or part of individual items in the budget.

Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage and a member of the House majority, supported the funding. She is the liaison of the Legislature on the governor’s child care task force that Dunleavy announced in early April. Coulombe wrote a bill aimed at boosting child care, which is co-sponsored by members of the mostly Democratic House minority caucus.

“The reason why I’m trying to figure that out is because I’m pro-life, and the governor wants to be a pro-family state,” Coulombe said. “I would hate for somebody to feel like they couldn’t have a baby because there’s no support once the baby’s born. So let’s give them some support to do it.”

It didn’t pass this year, but Coulombe said she’s hopeful for more movement on the child care issue when legislators reconvene next year.

Child care and the economy

Blue Shibler is the executive director of the Southeast Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children. She said child care centers are struggling despite intense demand for services.

“Whether you’re talking about rural Alaska or cities, every single part of Alaska has a child care shortage. And that in the heart of that sort of shortage is absolutely, simply that it’s not a good business model — you can’t make a profit. In fact, you can only suffer a loss, really, at this point,” Shibler said.

She said any funding is good, but more would be better.

“I think it’s going to help,” she said. “I don’t think we’re going to see growth in the industry, which is a bummer, because we really feel like having more child care availability is what was going to be part of the answer to the workforce shortages.”

That sentiment was echoed by Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Cathy Muñoz in April. “The lack of affordable and accessible quality childcare is a significant workforce challenge,” she said in a press release.

According to one study, 77% percent of Alaska parents reported missing work because of child care challenges. Forty percent of Alaskans interviewed for the study said that they or someone in their household had left a job, declined a job offer, or changed jobs because of child care issues in the last year.

Christina Eubanks has run a legacy child care center in Anchorage for the last 15 years. She said the last year has been the most stressful of her career even though demand is as high as it’s ever been.

“A woman said to me, ‘As soon as I knew my pregnancy was viable, I started looking for child care,” Eubanks recounted. “She’s literally looking at losing her job. And she’s a professional woman losing her career because she cannot go back to work.”

But to hire staff, Eubanks has had to raise wages — the minimum she pays is $16 an hour. That pay hike for her workers means that she’s raising her rate to nearly $1,700 a month per child this summer.

“There’s a limit to what people can pay,” she said. Her child care center, Hillcrest, is considering scholarships for currently enrolled families that cannot afford the increase. She said the state funding is going to help her keep the cost to families down while she invests in retaining her staff.

The $7.5 million in the state budget is the biggest boost she’s seen from the state. It would translate to about $10,000 a month for her care center — and she plans to put it all towards salaries.

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