Last week the State Senate was scheduled to debate and then vote on a resolution that if passed, would let the public vote on changing our constitution to allow public money to be used for tuition at a private school. Without getting into the pros and cons of this, it is important to note that a change to our state’s constitution can only occur when the people vote to make this happen. After counting votes, the Senate decided to put this on hold for now. We will however, vote in August on whether to legalize marijuana. This vote is possible through the initiative process. While I will vote no on this initiative-I think it is a terrible idea for our students to have greater access to pot- I have to wonder why there isn’t a grass roots initiative to do what the legislators are trying to do with their resolution.
In simple terms, our legislators are tasked with making Alaska a better place to live. With this in mind, whenever I read new legislation I ask myself what is this bill trying to improve? In the case of public money paying for private K-12 tuition, one can thus assume that the sponsors view public schools as not meeting the needs of all Alaska’s children. And if this is true, why am I not being stopped in the grocery store parking lot to sign a petition to change the constitution? Although biased, I like to think that the public schools on the Kenai are working. Our school doors are open to whomever comes through them. We educate students from wealthy homes and from poor homes. We educate students with severe physical and cognitive disabilities and those who are bright and physically gifted. We have several school options for our students who live in the central peninsula and in Homer. I don’t sense that people are fleeing our borough because the schools are terrible. If this was the case, I’d be stopped in the Fred Meyer parking lot by a guy with a clipboard.
Where’s the public initiative?
Last week the State Senate was scheduled to debate and then vote on a resolution that if passed, would let the public vote on changing our constitution to allow public money to be used for tuition at a private school. Without getting into the pros and cons of this, it is important to note that a change to our state’s constitution can only occur when the people vote to make this happen. After counting votes, the Senate decided to put this on hold for now. We will however, vote in August on whether to legalize marijuana. This vote is possible through the initiative process. While I will vote no on this initiative-I think it is a terrible idea for our students to have greater access to pot- I have to wonder why there isn’t a grass roots initiative to do what the legislators are trying to do with their resolution.
In simple terms, our legislators are tasked with making Alaska a better place to live. With this in mind, whenever I read new legislation I ask myself what is this bill trying to improve? In the case of public money paying for private K-12 tuition, one can thus assume that the sponsors view public schools as not meeting the needs of all Alaska’s children. And if this is true, why am I not being stopped in the grocery store parking lot to sign a petition to change the constitution? Although biased, I like to think that the public schools on the Kenai are working. Our school doors are open to whomever comes through them. We educate students from wealthy homes and from poor homes. We educate students with severe physical and cognitive disabilities and those who are bright and physically gifted. We have several school options for our students who live in the central peninsula and in Homer. I don’t sense that people are fleeing our borough because the schools are terrible. If this was the case, I’d be stopped in the Fred Meyer parking lot by a guy with a clipboard.