In his recent editorial, Gov. Mike Dunleavy promotes public charter schools as the panacea for our education crisis — again. I’m sure others will pick apart his arguments, so I will confine my letter to a couple points.
First, he states that “These schools deliver exceptional results through individualized teaching methods, smaller class sizes and a commitment to meeting the needs of families and students.” True, but any educator, or observant parent, can tell you that those are basic elements for optimal education. Other schools also achieve excellence when afforded the funds for those elements — he vetoed an increase of education funding just last session.
Then later on, Dunleavy writes, “It’s time for policymakers to listen to parents, not special interest groups, and act.” Let me point out that “special interest groups” is his code phrase for the school districts and teachers’ union. Heaven forbid that people with more extensive training and years of experience in education than he had should have their own ideas of how to improve schools, when they contrast with his. The governor is much more interested in picking a fight with educators than finding a way to success for all of Alaska’s students.
Instead of swallowing his lines, let’s work toward improving all public schools, not just adding a few charter schools. When the legislative session starts on Jan. 21, I hope that our senators and representatives listen to the voters who elected them, and pass public pension reform and a substantial permanent increase to the Base Student Allocation. That is how we’ll really fix our education crisis.
Find your legislators in the “Who Represents Me?” box at akleg.gov and encourage them to pass a public pensions bill and a permanent increase in the BSA.
— Cheryl Lovegreen, Anchorage
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