By the narrowest of margins, 21-19, the House on the last night of the legislative session passed a bill implementing a statewide approach to how school districts intervene when students have difficulty reading.
The session’s original reading legislation had been blocked in the House, opposed by several rural lawmakers and Democrats, but the Senate merged it into another education bill on the next-to-the-last day of session, forcing the House to accept or reject the entire package.
The reading intervention bill was a priority of Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Anchorage Sen. Tom Begich. It is intended to assist students in achieving reading proficiency by the end of third grade.
Under the bill, districts will need to administer a state reading screening tool, write individual reading improvement plans for deficient readers in kindergarten through third grade, and provide reading intervention services.
Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz, a former public school teacher, voted against the merged bill on May 18. In an interview with the Ketchikan Daily News two days after the Legislature adjourned, he said the bill was well-intentioned but the paperwork and regulation will divert teachers from the students they’re trying to help.
Ortiz, whose district includes Wrangell, also said the bill doesn’t include enough funding to offset the extra time and resources that teachers and districts will have to spend to comply with the changes.
“They require the teachers to spend extra time doing individual reading plans, but there’s no compensation for them to do that,” Ortiz said. The result, he said, becomes: “Let’s add it on to what they’re already supposed to do’”
The measure approved on the final night, House Bill 114, originally related to education loans. It left the House on April 25 at two-and-a-half pages long. When it got to the Senate floor on May 17, senators made amendments, including adding the reading legislation, known as Senate Bill 111. As a result, the bill that came back to the House for a concurrence vote on May 18, the final night of the session, was 45 pages long.
During the final vote in the House, just hours before adjournment, more representatives spoke in opposition to the bill than in favor during floor debate, including Bethel Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky.
“My concerns are rooted in the protection of small schools, Alaska Native children, Alaska Native language-speaking students, that such an onerous policy would unintentionally disadvantage these groups to their peers,” Zulkosky said. “I also remain very skeptical at the notion that increased testing, be it in the form of reading screeners, is going to solve these underlying inequities and the root causes for the disparities in educational achievement.”
The bill details new requirements for schools, including implementing the statewide reading screening tool, training staff, reporting to the Department of Education and providing intensive reading intervention services.
The bill “does not help rural Alaska,” Dillingham Rep. Bryce Edgmon said, and sidesteps the real issues of teacher recruitment and retention. “My superintendents tell me if we can get qualified teachers to come out and to stay and to get familiar with the communities, we can get our kids reading. We don’t need another bill.”
Another part of the merged bill adds $30 to the amount the state pays per student to school districts to help fund operating expenses, increasing the base student allocation from $5,930 to $5,960. Multiple House members took issue with the size of the increase, saying it wasn’t enough. The state funding formula has not changed since 2017.
“$30 per student … can’t possibly pay for the extensive mandates. These aren’t unfunded mandates, they are grossly underfunded mandates,” Anchorage Rep. Zack Fields said.
Bill supporter Anchorage Rep. James Kaufman said the legislation is “an incremental improvement and it may not satisfy all of the wants and needs but it is viewed as a step forward.”
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