A controversial measure requiring all sex ed programs in Alaska schools to garner the approval of local school boards has been assigned to a conference committee in the Alaska Legislature.
In a brief Friday floor session, the Alaska Senate appointed senators Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla; Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage; and Donny Olson, D-Nome, to the committee, which will be tasked with combining differing versions of House Bill 156.
When it was drafted by Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, HB 156 was envisioned as a way to allow school districts to suspend standardized testing after the abysmal failure of the Alaska Measures of Progress exam.
The state’s first computer-conducted standardized test, AMP failed to deliver the data administrators sought, and this year’s tests were cancelled when a backhoe severed a fiber-optic cable in Kansas, home to the testing center, just as Alaska students were preparing to take the exam.
In a Senate committee, HB 156 was altered to include an amendment brought forward by Dunleavy, whose Senate Bill 89 had been killed in a House committee.
Both SB 89 and the amendment to HB 156 would restrict who can teach sexual education in Alaska schools. As originally drafted, the measure would have permitted only certified teachers to conduct sex ed classes, and some versions of the measure were written to forbid groups that provide abortion services from also teaching sex ed. That was a specific jab at Planned Parenthood.
In subsequent committees, the Dunleavy amendment was softened. The final version of the bill, passed by the Senate on April 17, calls for sex ed instructors to be overseen by a schoolteacher, and all instructors — and their curriculum — must be previously approved by the local school board.
While the Senate easily passed the amended HB 156 in a 15-5 vote, things weren’t as simple in the House. Lawmakers there balked, rejecting the Senate’s changes by a single vote: 20-19.
The two different versions now head to a conference committee for a compromise. The House on April 17 named Keller, Rep David Talerico (R-Healy), and Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D-Sitka) to its side of the conference committee.
Speaking after Friday’s House floor session, Keller said no conference committee meetings have yet been scheduled, and Monday is the soonest that one is likely to take place.
If you’re looking for a sign of the conference committee’s likely decision, however, note that among the six conferees, only Kreiss-Tomkins voted on the floor against HB 156 with the Dunleavy Amendment.
