Senators Joe Paskvan, Dennis Egan, and Gary Stevens during the closeout hearing of the Senate Finance DEED Subcommittee, March 20, 2012
This blog contains highlights from the Alaska Education Update. The update is issued daily during session and contains detailed summaries of education issues under consideration by the Alaska State Legislature. If there is a hearing on a Monday, a report will, with few exceptions, be released by Tuesday morning. There is also a weekly edition of the update. During interim, reports are issued only when there has been action. Interim action may include hearings, bill signings, the release of the Governor's proposed budget for the next fiscal year, and other items that may be of interest to the education community.

To subscribe to full reports, contact Shana Crondahl at (907) 500-7069 or akedupdate@gci.net. To subscribe to blog posts, submit your email:

Saturday, May 29, 2010

New Camera

I got a new camera at Costco a couple days ago.  It was the cheapest one they had - a Fujifilm Finepix JX250.  I think it works pretty good.  It takes better closeups than my old camera:

Mining Ruins, Douglas, Alaska

The shutter speed is a little faster, the flash works at a farther range, and it's smaller so it fits in my pocket.  The only thing that doesn't seem to be as good are the long-range landscape shots:

It's kind of hazy. 


But that might be from the cruiseships.

It doesn't seem like that small amount of polution from one ship could make everything so hazy.  But there are three ships in, and they're all putting out a "small" amount of polution:

So maybe it's not that the camera doesn't take long-range landscape pictures very well.  Maybe it's that the long-range landscape just doesn't look so good. 

The camera works good at medium-range landscapes, like these pictures of mining ruins in Douglas, Alaska:

 
This ruin is interesting.  I think, with the columns, it looks rather like a Roman ruin.

Most ruins just look like this, and you can't tell what they used to be.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

August 24, 2010 Alaska Primary Election Candidates

Spring Alder, Juneau, May 8, 2010

Here's a link to the Div. of Elections webpage listing candidates for the August primary, if you're wondering who's running: http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ci_pg_cl_2010_prim.php

The deadline for filing is 5:00 p.m., June 1.  Several districts haven't had anyone file yet, and many have only one candidate who's filed, so there will certainly be additions to the list of candidates.  So far there is no one registered to run in:

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Current Status of Passed Legislation

Most education-related legislation that passed the legislature is still awaiting transmittal to the governor.  At the end of April, Legal Services had considerably over 100 bills it was still working on enrolling (checking for errors, ommissions, and correct form).

After Legal Services completes enrollment of legislation, it has to be signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate, and then it is sent to the governor. Speaker Chenault is.....