The Alaska Reads Act narrowly passed the Legislature. Policymakers are still divided on its benefits.

The Alaska Legislature passed one of the state’s biggest education overhauls in a decade before adjourning last week, leaving policymakers bitterly divided over a wide-ranging reading bill and a boost to per-student schools spending.adopts new testing tools and interventions favored by Alaska conservatives, who cite student scores that are among the nation’s lowest.

Anchorage Democratic Sen. Tom Begich, one of the reading bill’s main supporters, has described the legislation as the only way to secure the spending increase for schools, since Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy was threatening a veto unless the budget boost came with broader reforms. “It only went through the process because of a political imperative that was created, and essentially got stuffed back in our faces in the House,” Edgmon said. He added: “Do you think the governor is going to veto $57 million in badly needed money when he needs those votes to get re-elected?”

The reading specialists would be required to do coursework in Indigenous language learning and “culturally responsive education” before being hired. The legislation made it through the Senate last month, but it ran into opposition in the House. Four Bush Caucus members, including Edgmon,saying the bill didn’t do enough to account for the challenges of rural education.

“My concern about this bill is not political gamesmanship,” Zulkosky said. “I had deep concerns rooted in the protection of Alaska Native students, Alaska Native language-speaking students, as well as small rural schools that such a policy if enacted would unintentionally disadvantage these groups relative to their peers.”With the House Education Committee’s version of the reading bill dead and just a week left in the legislative session, Begich and his allies in the Senate adopted new tactics.

“This is the first time there’s ever been a bill to implement statewide pre-K. It has been a dream, a goal, a mission, a passion, but there has never been legislation to actually achieve that,” Tarr said. “I know there are some concerns about the reading part. But what we know about early learning is, it absolutely prepares our students to be good readers.”

Or how about just pay educators more and fund the entire school system with the appropriate moneys instead of inventing nonsensical programs that are just a bandaid to the bigger problem at hand😵‍💫.

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