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.

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

House Members appointed to Higher Education Task Forces

House members have been named to the Joint Legislative Higher Education Scholarship Funding Task Force and the Advisory Task Force on Higher Education & Career Readiness (established by SB 221 http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill.asp?bill=SB%20221&session=26 ). No word yet on when the task forces will begin meeting.

Members of the task forces include:
The Joint Legislative Higher Education Scholarship Funding Task Force (15 members):
Five senators: Senate President Stevens and Sens. Elllis, Hoffman, Meyer, & Thomas;
Five representatives: Reps. Seaton, P. Wilson.....
Keller, Fairclough, & Tuck;
The DEED commissioner or his designee
The UA president or his designee
The Office of Management & Budget director or her designee
A DEED State Board member
The executive director of the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education (ACPE) or her designee.

The Advisory Task Force on Higher Education & Career Readiness (20 members):
Two senators: Senate President Stevens and Sen. Huggins;
Two represenatives: Speaker Chenault and Rep. Seaton
The governor or the governor's designee
The executive director of the ACPE or her designee
The commissioner of DEED or his designee
One member appointed by the governor, representing vocations, technical training, or apprenticeship programs in the state
One student representative appointed by the State Board of Education & Early Development
The student member of the UA Board of Regents or the student's designee
The president of UA or his designee
The executive director of AASB or his designee
The executive director of the AASA or her designee
The president of the NEA-Alaska or her designee
The president of AFN or her designee
One member appointed by the governor, representing private colleges or universities
One member appointed by the governor, representing public postsecondary institutions, and not affiliated with UA
Three members appointed by the governor, with special knowledge, skill, or experience in education remediation, and who are employed as faculty at postsecondary institutions. One of these members must live outside Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau.

2 comments:

Steve said...

When I first saw this as a bill, I rolled my eyes. The people who have created the monster plus a few others are going to review themselves.

We have tons of studies by people who don't have a vested interest in the outcome.

I'm just trying to consider when these people are going to meet and actually do any work on this. Just the cost of setting up a meeting for this group would pay a couple teachers' salaries I bet.

Alaska Education Update said...

Those two concerns (the cost and what could possibly be accomplished) were two of the concerns I heard expressed during hearings and floor votes. For the larger task force, the Higher Education & Career Readiness Task Force, the participating agencies and organizations will each pay costs associated for their member to participate, so that will spread the cost out. But that's not to say there won't be a cost.

As to whether anything will be accomplished or not, that's always a risk with task forces. However, I was really happy with the reccomendations of the Joint Legislative Education Funding Task Force (JLEFTF) and the changes that have been made as a result of the recommendations.

I imagine that you, as a retired professor, have a similar vantage point that I do, as a parent: we both see how things actually operate on the ground. We compare that with the ideals that are voiced at the legislative and policy-setting level and see the dichotomy. How can those ideals be translated to the schools and classrooms? Hey, and that's not to even mention that some of them conflict with each other, some of them are not practicable, and some will simply be ignored by individual teachers or administrators.

But I still think the task forces are a good idea. If they are half as effective as the JLEFTF, it will be worth it.