Lisa Murkowski on Education Independent Sr Senator (AK)

College Access Challenge Grants for at-risk students

• Successfully enacted legislation to make Ilisagvik College in Barrow eligible Federal Land Grant School funding (2008).
• Consistently supports funding for Ilisagvik College through the Tribally Controlled Colleges & Universities grant program.
• Consistently supports funding for certain rural campuses of the University of Alaska through the Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions program.
• Sponsored, fought vigorously for, and won a provision to make it easier for lower rank/lower income members of the military, their spouses, and their children to qualify for federal Pell Grants (2007).
• Sponsored and won authorization for the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program at the University of Alaska (2008).
• Inspired the creation of and directly negotiated the details of the new College Access Challenge Grant Program (2007) to help more at-risk students prepare for and attend college.

Support NCLB but need room to adapt NCLB to local needs

KNOWLES: The federal No Child Left Behind law turned our education dream into a nightmare. Alaska’s Quality Schools Initiative was working-raising student scores and teacher standards-until the federal government imposed its one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t fit Alaska. We need to repeal these 1,200 pages of micro-management and return education decisions to our teachers, parents and school boards.

MURKOWSKI: Alaska needs flexibility from burdensome federal regulations that do nothing to improve education and threaten local control of schools. I support the goals of NCLB, but states need room to adapt NCLB to local needs-to consider growth-based models to measure yearly progress, to appropriately include disabled students in education, and flexibility in implementing the “highly qualified” teacher provisions.

Compliance to federal education standards difficult in AK

Keep God in the Pledge of Allegiance

Construct rural teacher housing

Make No Child Left Behind work

Require high school exit exams

Murkowski supports the following principles regarding education:
• Support teacher testing and reward teachers with merit pay.
• Require public schools to administer high school exit exams.

Voted YES on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects.

Proponents support voting YES because:

Rep. OBEY: This bill, more than any other, determines how willing we are to make the investment necessary to assure the future strength of this country and its working families. The President has chosen to cut the investments in this bill by more than $7.5 billion in real terms. This bill rejects most of those cuts.

Opponents recommend voting NO because:

Rep. LEWIS: This bill reflects a fundamental difference in opinion on the level of funding necessary to support the Federal Government's role in education, health and workforce programs. The bill is $10.2 billion over the President's budget request. While many of these programs are popular on both sides of the aisle, this bill contains what can rightly be considered lower priority and duplicative programs. For example, this legislation continues three different programs that deal with violence prevention. An omnibus bill is absolutely the wrong and fiscally reckless approach to completing this year's work. It would negate any semblance of fiscal discipline demonstrated by this body in recent years.

Veto message from President Bush:

This bill spends too much. It exceeds [by $10.2 billion] the reasonable and responsible levels for discretionary spending that I proposed to balance the budget by 2012. This bill continues to fund 56 programs that I proposed to terminate because they are duplicative, narrowly focused, or not producing results. This bill does not sufficiently fund programs that are delivering positive outcomes. This bill has too many earmarks--more than 2,200 earmarks totaling nearly $1 billion. I urge the Congress to send me a fiscally responsible bill that sets priorities.

Voted NO on $52M for "21st century community learning centers".

Voted NO on $5B for grants to local educational agencies.

• $2.5 billion for targeting grants to local educational agencies
• $2.5 billion for education finance incentive grants

Voted NO on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education.

• Restore education program cuts slated for vocational education, adult education, GEAR UP, and TRIO.
• Increase the maximum Pell Grant scholarship to $4,500 immediately.
• Increases future math and science teacher student loan forgiveness to $23,000.
• Pay for the education funding by closing $10.8 billion in corporate tax loopholes.

Rated 55% by the NEA, indicating a mixed record on public education.

The National Education Association has a long, proud history as the nation's leading organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. Founded in 1857 "to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching and to promote the cause of popular education in the United States," the NEA has remained constant in its commitment to its original mission as evidenced by the current mission statement:

To fulfill the promise of a democratic society, the National Education Association shall promote the cause of quality public education and advance the profession of education; expand the rights and further the interest of educational employees; and advocate human, civil, and economic rights for all.