Public School Funding
Dear Editor: Should public school funds be used for education?
Sometimes the simplest question has the most interesting answer.
This week, Sept. 16-19, the state School Board meets in Sitka, they get the usual tour of Mt. Edgecumbe school, the only one it operates as a board, then they get down to regulatory business.
The board has a number of big interest items, the AMP test results near the top, before it as well as a number of regulatory changes recommended by state EED.
But buried in the meeting agenda is one item that answers that part of that first question. And it recommends ending a prohibition against spending school funds on specific non-education items.
Item 6A.
It is the response the commissioner and his department have to the question asked by the board in May of this year.
The board asked for clarification of the use of school funds in elections.
You might have noticed that districts do not spend money on election flyers promoting bonds, etc. They have to use proxy groups, funded by construction companies and PTAs.
This is because under the current regulation “A school district may not appropriate or spend school district money for the purpose of influencing the result of a public vote on an election, referendum, initiative, recall, or other election involving candidates for or holders of public office. (b) the restriction in (a) of this section is not intended to interfere with the exercise of the right to free speech by school district board members or school personnel.”The commissioner has recommended repealing this language. The language is a response to the 1991 ASD board expending the equivalent of 200 students’ worth of BSA funds to unsuccessfully defend the board from recall.
The change if adopted, means districts MAY spend state school dollars on all the previously prohibited activities.
I would rather the districts spend state school dollars on educating students not on promoting political agendas, or defending incompetent school boards from recall.
The state board should reject the commissioner’s recommendation; it does not put more money into classrooms but most assuredly will put more money into elections.
David Nees, Anchorage
