Good afternoon everyone I call this meeting of the Senate Education Committee to order it is 3 44 p.m.
Here on Wednesday February 4th
We are meeting in the belts committee room here in a beautiful state Capitol building located in
The heart of Juneau for those who have joined us here the room if you could please mute mute your cell phones
I'd greatly appreciate it
For today's meetings, documents have been uploaded to basis.
They are also been a distributed to members and some additional copies are available for folks right there by the door.
Members present today is Vice Chair, Senate President Mr. Stevens.
We have Senator Keel, Senator Bjorkman,
Senator Yount, and myself,
Senator Lukigal Tobin, please let the record reflect.
We do have a quorum to conduct business.
I wanna thank Zachary from the Juno LAO
for moderating today's meeting.
And Mary Gwen, as always for documenting today meeting,
On the agenda today, we will have the first hearing of Senate Resolution 4
honoring the 250th anniversary of the United States.
We will also have a second hearing for Senate Bill 204 related to substitute teaching and
the qualifications for school board members.
We'll be taking invited testimony on both agenda items.
Senate Resolution 4 will also include public testimony.
If you would like to include your comments, please call the following teleconference numbers from Anchorage 907.
563-9085 from Juneau it's 907-586-9085 and from all other locales it is 1-844-586-90085.
You can also test 5 from your local legislative information office or email your public testimony
to senate.education.aklg.gov that senate dot education at akaleg. gov.
And we're back on the record here in Senate Education.
We, first up is Senate Resolution Number Four.
Sponsored by Senator Kathy Tilton,
she is joined by her staff, May Heath Hilliard,
and they are here to present the resolution.
If you could join us here,
up at the Senate education table,
if you would identify yourself as a record
and begin your opening remarks at your leisure.
Senator Kathy Tilton, the House District M.
Is that it?
Madam Chair.
Oh, House.
I said House, darn it.
I knew I was going to do that.
Madem Chair, please forgive me.
Um, Senate, to her Kathy Tim from Senate District
M, which is in the Matsu.
And Madim Chair for the record, he's
a retired staff to Senator Tiltman.
Why do you think I'd do
that?
Well, let's get started.
Thank you, Chair Tobin and Vice Chair Stevens, members of the committee for the record.
My name is Senator Kathy Tilton, and I do represent House District and we're going to do this the whole time, you guys.
I'm going get used to this one day.
And I am the prime sponsor of Senate Resolution 4.
I appreciate the opportunity to be able to present.
Today, Senate Resolution 4 is a simple resolution,
but it's a meaningful measure that honors the monumental milestone
in our nation's history, the 250th anniversary of the signing
of The Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776.
As we approach July fourth, 2026, this is called the Semi-Quin
Centennial, which is the fun word to say.
It offers a unique chance for reflection, celebration,
the principles of freedom, democracy, and self-governance to define America.
Briefly, I'll outline the resolution very quick.
I know all of you can read, so I won't go into it specifically.
But in the first, whereas it acknowledges
that the Declaration of Independence proclaimed the birth
of a new nation founded on liberty and equality.
And then what goes on to say that United States has grown
to include 50 states with Alaska proudly joining
as the 49th state in 1959.
Alaska has contributed immensely to the nation's defense,
economy, and cultural heritage.
And the anniversary is an opportunity to reaffirm our
commitments to The Founding Fathers.
So the resolving clauses in the resolution say,
be it resolved by the Alaska Senate that we recognize and
commemorate the 250th anniversary,
encouraging all Alaskan communities' organizations,
and especially schools and educational institutions to
in events.
programs in teaching that highlight our shared history
and urge the integration of civic education
with the founding principles into the curriculum
that will inspire future generations.
And that is why this resolution is an education committee
because we are encouraging the civic
education specifically for schools all across Alaska.
And we're not asking for any funding for this,
it is not mandated.
There are programs already enacted
which is provided for the educators.
They're also doing a lot of initiatives, one of them being our American story,
where you can submit stories written from
Oh, kindergarten through 12th grade and even older adults.
Submit your stories of American history
and how you feel about America.
There's also another program called America's Field Trip.
And this is a field trip that children write.
There are stories about it.
Those stories are looked at and they make decisions
that can win prizes.
And one of the prizes is they get to go to Washington, D.C.
So very fun and not anything that costs the states any money.
In your packet, you'll see that there are NCSL and CSG and other organizations that the legislature
belongs to are also doing other things to help encourage the celebration of our semi-quinsentennial.
Lastly, I would just say that this sponsor statement just states that it's commemorative.
It talks about federalism.
It involves civic engagement and education.
So with that, Madam Chair, I believe that's our four.
Unites, Alaskans, in celebration and strength.
Strengthens our commitment to the education as a pillar of democracy.
Thank you, Senator Tilton.
I do know that there are some advocates right here at this dais who are strong supporters of civic education or public schools.
Are there any questions from committee members?
President Stevens can't let this festival have a comment. I really appreciate Senator what you've done
But the shocking thing of the Institute of Citizens Scholars is that just one in three Americans would pass the citizenship task
We are doing a very poor job in Alaska's near the bottom, right? Right
Thank You Senator Stevens for that through the chair
I just was looking online and it's funny when you're kind of scrolling through your Facebook feed
and there was a test from Hillsdale College on what do you really know about the Declaration of
Independence, what you know, about The Constitution,
what, do, you, know? About the history of our nation. And I was kind
of curious about myself and how well I would do and I did go on there and...
It wasn't as good as I think I could have been.
So it is a sad thing to think about that,
especially our younger generations.
We're losing that kind of historical knowledge.
Thank you.
Any additional questions from committee members?
Seeing none, I see that you do not have any invited testifiers
or anything that would like to say Mr. Hilliard?
No, ma'am, Madam Chair, no,
I was here to support the boss.
Excellent. Well, we will now move on to public testimony. I now open public
testimony for Senate Resolution 4. If there are anyone here in the room who wishes to testify.
Seeing no one and seeing no
one online, I'm now going to close public
testimony, any final comments from committee members? Seeing none, President Stevens.
Madam Chair, I move to report Senate Resolution 4,
work order 34-LS 1294-A from the Senate Education Committee
with individual recommendations and attach zero fiscal note.
Without objection, Senate resolution 4 work
order, 34 dash LS 1294 backslash-a as in Anchorage,
is reported from Senate education committee
with Individual Recommendations
and attached zero, fiscal notes.
Please stay behind the meeting to sign the committee report.
Oh, brief it is.
Here in Senate Education Committee, we will be holding Senate Bill 204 for a later date.
Once again, if you have any amendments you wish to consider, any additional considerations you'd like to include in legislation, please work with our office and the bill's sponsor.
As there is no other items on the agenda today, this concludes our work for this afternoon.
Education Committee meeting for Friday, February 6th has been canceled.
Our next meeting will be a joint meeting with the House Education
Committee on Monday, february 9th to hear from school board members and
students across Alaska. I apologize profusely that
meeting is at 8 a.m. in the Davis committee room room 106.
It's going to be an early morning for us here on the Senate Education
At that meeting, we will hear from members of the Association of Alaska School Boards.
They will be joining us for their annual legislative fly-in, which is from February 7th to February
10th.
As there is no other meeting before us today, I will adjourn today Senate Education Committee
at 3.55pm.