The Conference Committee met Thursday to consider open items in HB 300 and HB 302. During the last hearing on Monday, April 12, the committee dealt with all open items in the Dept. of Education & Early Development’s budget, so there are no items open in that department. Sen. Hoffman said the next meeting would address the last two open items (one in the Governor’s Office and one in the Dept. of Revenue) and any fiscal notes.
A language adoption was made for Item 3 (Conditional Language, K-12 Support) on the DEED motion sheet. The language states that it is the intent of the legislature that up to $7,000,000 of the amount appropriated from the public school trust fund, AS 37.14.110, for public school programs may be used to address issues raised in Moore vs. Alaska. Those issues include curriculum design, professional training and retention, pre-kindergarten and other intensive early learning, and remediation plans for individual students. Affected school districts include the Yupiit, Lower Yukon, Yukon Flats, Yukon Koyukuk, and Northwest Arctic.