The state House needed an auctioneer last week. Instead, it wasted three hours in a meaningless bidding war as the Republican-led majority told Alaskans they cared far more than anyone else about supporting education and ensuring state-funded alternatives for correspondence school students and their families.
That meant they didn’t want to move too quickly to fix the constitutional problem of state money going to private and religious school programs. Let the millions continue to flow and wait for the Alaska Supreme Court to hear the appeal of last month’s Superior Court ruling, they said. No sense jeopardizing “stability” just to be in a hurry to follow the constitution.
Putting aside their pledge of allegiance to educational stability, what really upped the ante for the House action was the desire to avoid tough votes in an election year. Why amend state law to follow the constitution and upset the governor and his most conservative supporters months before the ballots go out. It’s the same governor who introduced the unconstitutional law more than a decade ago when he was a state senator.
So rather than debate and fix the actual problem, half of the House figured it would be safer to pass a “Sense of the House” declaration, asking the courts to delay until 2025 any order that would require the state to follow the constitution and end the use of correspondence school money for private and religious programs.
But why stop at 2025? Sure, it gets House members past the 2024 elections, but in 2026 Alaskans will elect a new governor and the entire 40-member House will be back on the ballot. Maybe it would be better to ask the courts to stay a final decision in the case until 2027. Or maybe skip over the 2028 presidential election year and seek a delay until 2029.
If it’s “stability” that the House majority really craves, why not hold an auction among members to decide the final date. Whereas the House declaration of April 24, asking the court to hold off until 2025, passed with a one-vote margin, maybe 2027 or 2029 would have attracted more support. Do I hear 2030? Anyone want to bid for 2035?
Basing legislative action on an auction is as nonsensical as the Sense of the House declaration.
Wasting an afternoon makes no sense, particularly coming so close to the mid-May adjournment deadline when a lot of real work remains on the agenda. The budget, education funding, public works projects and energy needs for hundreds of thousands of Alaskans are all far more important than taking time out just to buy time past this year’s election.
In a bit of honesty, Anchorage Republican Rep. Craig Johnson, who introduced the Sense of the House declaration, acknowledged: “The court doesn’t have to agree with us.” He finished his sentence with a bit of wishful thinking: “But I do believe this will carry weight.” The only weight the House action carries is the burden of denial.
Nikiski Republican Rep. Ben Carpenter was more honest, though he still voted yes for the nonsense: “It should be clear to the judiciary that we are divided and we do not have our collective act together … and we need more time.”
The better answer is for the House to get its act together, do its job, amend the law to follow the constitution and, as long as they are working, pass a budget that really supports education.
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