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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Friday, February 25, 2011

House Finance DEED Budget Subcommittee makes substantial cuts to DEED's department funding

The subcommittee held their budget closeout Thursday morning and it almost looked like they weren’t going to finish the subcommittee process. Rep. Seaton was very concerned about the subcommittee recommendations, and that the proposed cuts to DEED might be extensive enough that the department would be unable to carry out their mission. Before the recess for joint session it appeared as though members weren’t going to accept the subcommittee report.

After joint session and before the subcommittee reconvened, Rep. Bill Thomas, co-chairman of the House Finance Committee showed up and.....
.....just hung around for awhile. After reconvening, all the votes on amendments followed party lines, with Republicans voting against the amendments. Everyone voted to move the subcommittee report on to the full Finance Committee except Rep. Petersen. Audio from the first half of the meeting is posted on Gavel-to-Gavel: http://www.ktoo.org/gavel/new/player.cfm?evid=HFED110224A

Governor Parnell's budget requests that were denied by the subcommittee are:
• -$221,900 from ACPE to administer Alaska Performance Scholarship awards
• -$181,800 from Alaska Challenge Youth Academy; denied as excessive receipt authority
• -$78,000 from Education Support Services, Administrative Services, interagency receipt support for administrative services
• -$207,600 from Teaching & Learning Support, Student & School Achievement, change from federal to general funds is denied
• -$200,000 from Teaching & Learning Support, Student & School Achievement, School Health & Safety Coordinator
• -$150,000 from Teaching & Learning Support, Student & School Achievement, Alaska Autism Resource Center
• -$2,000,000 from Teaching & Learning Support, Student & School Achievement, Pilot Pre-K Program
• -$1,100,000 from ACPE, Program Administration and Operations, federal receipt authority denied
• -$600,000 from Teaching & Learning Support, Statewide Mentoring Programs, delete uncollectible interagency receipts
• -$150,000 from Education Support Services, unallocated reduction
• -$2,000,000 from Teaching & Learning Support, unallocated reduction
• -$2,000,000 from Teaching & Learning Support, unallocated reduction of federal receipt authority
• -$50,000 from Boards & Commissions, unallocated reduction
• -$50,000 from Archives, Libraries, & Museums, unallocated reduction

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