22nd Alaska State Legislature
News from the Senate Finance Committee
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Session: State Capitol, Room 508 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-3892 Fax: (907) 465-6595 Interim: 716 W 4th Avenue, Suite 400 Anchorage, AK 99501-2133 Phone: (907) 269-0234 Fax: (907) 269-0238 |
Senate Wants State to Control Education Funds
For Immediate Release: February 5, 2001
Contact: Senator Dave Donley at (907) 465-3892
(JUNEAU) -- The Alaska Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Monday urging Congress to give states greater control over the federal education dollars they receive.
The federal government currently earmarks the education funding it distributes for specific purposes. Senate Joint Resolution 6, sponsored by the Senate Finance Committee, encourages Congress to disburse this money directly to the states, including the State of Alaska as block grants.
“We have done very well with welfare funding being transformed from specific individual programs to a block grant system to the state,” said Senator Dave Donley (R-Anchorage), co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee. “It’s allowed great cost efficiencies in that process and delivered much more dollars directly where they need to be. That’s what we need to be working on in education.”
In remarks from the Senate floor, Donley said the current system of administering federal education funds the state and school districts are required to go through has too much red tape, adding considerable costs to the process.
“If this process were simplified through block grants, a lot more dollars would go right into our classrooms where our students can use them, rather than going to just filling out federal paperwork,” said Donley.
SJR 6 moves to the House for consideration.
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