Alaska Determining Whether it Should Follow Common Core (+video)

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Today we are on the precipice of determining whether Alaska should follow the guidance of Commissioner of Education, Michael Hanley and Alaska School Board President Esther Cox as they direct our entire educational K-12 foundation to align with the national and international standards and curriculum of Common Core.

Certainly, there are convincing arguments that there should be standards of achievement for students and that there should be a method of assessment periodically throughout what is commonly held as the “formal years of education.” The argument evolves into a sense that without these standards, our Alaskan children will not be able to properly compete with all citizens for work in a global market.

And certainly, one can argue that our current educational standards are subpar both globally (ranked 26th in the world) and nationally (Alaska~ 39th overall) which are issues we need to take into account specifically when Alaska spends more money per capita, per student than anywhere in the world at approximately $22,000.00 per student. When you factor in the Taj Mahal brick and mortar structures , we have no financial competition. We get the financial “Blue Ribbon” with very little accountability, which brings me to my next point…

Most people do not know that the Commissioner of Education does not answer to the Governor in the state of Alaska. To add insult to injury, neither does the Alaska School board. These are officials who are appointed through the legislature and do not answer directly to the electorate. I find it fascinating that the most important resource Alaska has is directed by administrators who are not directly accountable to “We the People.” Perhaps, this is why we get the results we have, which brings me to my next point…

Esther Cox ~ President of the Alaska School Board recently made remarks in the House Education Committee hearing when asked what implementing Common Core standards would cost the state over a period of ten years, Ms. Cox answered:

“I could not possibly answer that question. I don’t live and breathe this daily as do those through the department.”

Commissioner of Education, Michael Hanley has made statements all over the map regarding whether the State of Alaska is Common Core compliant, and whether or not our children’s personal data has been shipped away to a national database. His changing testimony over the last few years has been less than stellar and one could certainly argue extremely deceptive and definitely not forthright and transparent.

Through it all, even a passive observer will come away with a sense that the education network in Alaska is run by a very selective “education cartel.”

Generally speaking, the Alaska legislature has had somewhat of a “hands off” approach in directing educational policy, and those few legislators who have actively engaged in the promotion of ideas of educational excellence seem to be met with some form of ostracizing as “educational zealots.” One comes away with a sense that the professionals are in place to promote the monopoly of an average educational experience and nothing more which brings me to my next point…

Common Core is being “sold” to the Alaskan legislature and to the citizen’s of Alaska as the “new” best way forward. I find it disconcerting that Bill Gates recently stated that Common Core is a 10 year experiment. One must wonder if we should expend an entire generation of our children on an educational experiment cooked up in the “Bill and Belinda Gates” education kitchen, but I divert…

Common Core is actually similar to the same national conversation we are having regarding global warming or it’s new label, “Climate Change.” There is a fascinating similarity especially here in Alaska for instead of Commissioner Hanley calling our standards “Common Core” he just promotes them as “Alaska Standards” but any reasonable assessment would indicate that they are 95% compliant to Common Core , so much so that the federal government has been willing to shovel some educational dollars into our coffers all with the idea that we will be a “good little state” and be compliant. Why do I hear that catchy tune from the movie Chicago playing in my head….” Give them the old Razzle Dazzle…” which brings me to my final point..

We are on the verge of an educational explosion based on technology. Today we have the opportunity to deliver a massive array of educational packages that are interactive in real time for pennies on the dollar. We can either embrace this new technology and begin directing the definition of excellence in educational content, or be bound to the convention of the “horse and buggy” of Common Core which is simply put, reinventing the same experiment which has given us questionable results. Recently, the “education cartel” passed legislation that “distance learning” or internet educational content must come from Alaska based educators. Given this notion, if Albert Einstein were alive today and wanted to provide Alaskan children with physics lessons via the cyber world, he would be turned down unless he wanted to take up residence in Alaska. This is an excellent example how decisions are made inside the narrow confines of the “cartel.”

For me, it is a clear picture. On one hand, we can continue to assist in the development of a condensed curriculum of educational content controlled by a select few for their own proprietary reasons which is generally associated with force, fraud and money, or we can embrace the open source market and explore all the options available to direct educational content truly as a learning tool instead of the convention of the global model which simply exists to socialize our citizens to “fit” into a global construct.

Is there any reason why any motivated student cannot accelerate at their own pace far beyond the convention of any “minimum standards” of education. Don’t we owe our very intellectual existence to assist in the development of true “brain power” based on the spirit of an individual and their desire to want more than the conventions of an educational cartel working on a “Common Core” design in the backwater of an archaic workshop simply to move the money around within their legions?


Our constitution was written for the individual to protect our personal liberties from an oppressive government. At the very least, shouldn’t our education construct reinforce the strength of our individual nature in assisting us to reach for the stars? Is our educational salvation going to find it’s greatest achievement in social doctrine?

I say we are on the shore of a great educational journey. We should not lack the common sense it will take to reclaim our destiny. “Common Core” is nothing but an expensive and embellished anchor. One we do not have the luxury to afford.

To accept the nomination of Commissioner Michael Hanley and President Esther Cox is to purchase the anchor. We deserve better

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Michael Chambers is the Chair of United for Liberty, the Chair of the Alaska Libertarian Party, and is a former public school educator.

Should Alaska follow Common Core? If not, contact your legislator today.

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Opinion: If You Believe in State Sovereignty, Help us Block these Confirmations [+video]

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At no other time in Alaskan history has it been more critical to block the nomination of two individuals for ANY position in Alaska’s government. I am writing you today in the hopes that you will contact every legislator, especially your state senator, to block the nominations of Mike Hanley for Commissioner of Education and Esther Cox for State School Board. Please call, write, and if possible, show up in person and dig in to block their appointment.

If you believe in State Sovereignty, you should oppose their confirmation. As Commissioner, Mike Hanley led the move for Alaska to join the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia. The move was supported by Esther Cox, School Board President.

Had there not been a significant grassroots backlash and threats to take action under Alaska’s procurement laws, Alaska would have lost control of education matters to this California-based consortium. The consortium agreement would have dictated that the state of Alaska obey rules and regulations passed by a group of other individuals that Alaskans did not elect and were not accountable to Alaskans.

If you believe that public officials should be honest to the state legislature and to the people of Alaska, you should oppose the nominations of Mike Hanley and Esther Cox. Even if you like the Common Core Standards, Alaskans should have an honest and open discussion on these standards. This has never happened because Mike Hanley has continued to misrepresent the truth to the Alaskan people and the legislature, with the blessing of Esther Cox.

•January 23, 2013, Mike Hanley told federal race to the top officials at the US Department of Education that Alaska’s standards are identical to the Common Core.

•June 3, 2013, Mike Hanley told the House Education Committee that the standards were 95% Common Core.

•On June 20, 2013, in written answers to the House Education Committee he stated that Alaska’s standards were close enough to the Common Core for a Common Core test to be valid.

•January 7, 2014, Mike Hanley testified to the State Senate that Alaska’s Standards are not Common Core.

•March 25, 2014, Mike Hanley stated it was false that Alaska’s Standards were 95% Common Core.

•February 4, 2015, Mike Hanley stated that the standards were “common core in outputs but not in inputs.”

The standards are not the only issue upon which Mike Hanley has played fast and loose with the truth. Hanley has repeatedly insisted that there was no money tied to the ESEA flexibility waiver. For example, on February 4, 2015, Mike Hanley reiterated that there was no money tied to the Elementary and Secondary Act Waiver from the U.S. Department of Education. However, Deputy Commissioner Les Morse indicated in his testimony before the House Finance Subcommittee Committee on the Department of Education and Early Development a few days later that all the Title funds were connected to testing, a requirement of the waiver, and that several full time positions at DEED were 100% federally funded due to the waiver.

On February 4, 2015, Esther Cox told the House Education Committee that she approved the Alaska Standards after she read them. She further indicated that she had no idea how much the standards would cost because she didn’t live and breathe education matters.Yet, she is the President of the Alaska School Board; shouldn’t she have a ballpark estimate?

Commissioner Hanley also was the motivating force behind joining Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia (SBAC), the Race to the Top consortium based out of California. In that agreement, Hanley committed the state to digital investment that still have local district budgets reeling. He committed the state to an assessment schedule that have cost the state millions of dollars. Further, he had indicated to the House Education Committee that SBAC was only a test, but his presentation five days later on June 7, 2013 highlighted the opportunity to use curriculum provided by them and cost benefits of that digital content to Alaska’s administrators. This again, was with the approval of Esther Cox.

It was Commissioner Hanley who supported Alaska’s P-12 student data to be used in a P-20W database by ACPE. This is a federally funded project with federally funded positions that meet monthly with the U.S. Department of Education. ACPE’s claim is that there is no right of opting out of this database and that parents consented when they enroll their children in public school in Alaska. Plans continue on the part of ACPE to market Alaska’s K-12 data through their Data Mart project with the consent and approval of Commissioner Mike Hanley and School Board President Esther Cox.

As revealed in the Hearings before the House Education Committee on February 9, 2015, not one family is known to have consented to their child’s data being shared or marketed in this project. Data from Alaskan students from the Online Alaska School Information System (OASIS) are being combined with the Permanent Fund data for cross referencing with other state databases and bundled into marketable items. This is what the Hanley-Cox regime has allowed to occur. It may seem inconceivable, yet, Hanley and Cox approved this project, and the Data Mart project to sell your child data, including test SBAtest scores, as well as the data on school employees, from the teacher to the lunch room monitors that would ordinarily be part of their personnel file.

What home school family can possibly forget that it was Commissioner Hanley and Esther Cox’s push for home school families to buy only curriculum that aligns with the Alaska Common Core Standards? What home school family can forget Hanley and Cox’s support of Senate Bill 9 in 2012 that would have criminalized home school?

Never, in the history of all of Alaska has any education administration been more against the rights of parents and against the privacy rights of Alaskans.


More recently, school board members came to Juneau to attempt to get many of the unfunded mandates of the Hanley/Cox regime off their plate. Legislators listened intently, but the Alaska Department of Education turned a deaf ear as did Alaska School Board President Esther Cox.

What district educator or principal can forget that it was Mike Hanley and Esther Cox who supporting the adaptive testing and the costs associated with these tests? What property tax payer can forget the impact on local budgets these measures are having as well as the loss of state and local control over education?

Recently Commissioner Hanley, with the support of Esther Cox, has attempted to expand the Alaska Department of Education’s authority to preschool and college. Perhaps once they were about education, but their actions since they have been in office suggest they are far more concerned about their own political power.

Soon it will be apparent that the measures undertaken by the Alaska Department of Education under the Hanley-Cox regime will consume over 50% of Alaska’s state budget. This isn’t my view; this was the conclusion of the Sustainability Task Force Chaired by Rep. Lynn Gattis and presented in the waning days 2014.

Please, for the sake of Alaska’s sovereignty, for the sake of honest government, for the sake of fiscal integrity, for your privacy rights, write and call your legislators and block the nomination of Mike Hanley for Commissioner and Esther Cox for Alaska School Board. Follow up with a letter to Governor Walker and let your voice be heard.

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Senator Lisa Murkowski: Porker Runner-Up (Or “Honorable” Mention)

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CAGW, a non-profit dedicated to eliminating government waste, gives the award annually to the lawmaker, government official, or political candidate who has shown the most “blatant disregard” for taxpayers that year. [Senator Elizabeth] Warren won over six other candidates with 34 percent of the vote in a public online poll.

She won the award because in 2014 she suggested the USPS fix its financial troubles by rebranding itself as a bank. If USPS offered basic bill paying, check cashing and small loans, it could make enough money to provide those services and shape up its finances . . .

Leading Porker in a Supporting Role went to Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, with 29 percent. Honorable Porker awards went to Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo, and former U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel. (Read more about the porker runner-up HERE)

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40 Days for Life Spring Campaign Begins in Anchorage

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All are invited to participate in the spring prayer campaign of 40 Days for Life, February 18 to March 29. In 40 Days for Life, each fall and spring, pro-life advocates gather outside abortion facilities around the world to peacefully stand vigil, pray for unborn babies and help mothers choose life for their children.

In Anchorage, the vigil takes place in front of Planned Parenthood, where abortions are performed – at 4001 East Lake Otis Parkway.

According to the 40 Days for Life website (40daysforlife.com), nearly 10,000 unborn babies have been saved from abortion and 61 abortion clinics have closed where 40 Days for Life vigils have taken place. Additionally, 107 abortion facility workers have quit the industry.

In order to sign up for vigil hours in Anchorage, go online to 40daysforlife.com/anchorage or contact Jen Syzdek at 830-5304, Pat Martin at 232-2211 or Jenny Remillard at 854-8215.

Those unable to attend the vigil in person are invited to pray and fast from home for an end to abortion. (Visit the original site HERE)

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Planned Parenthood Challenging Alaska Law Limiting Elective Abortions

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Photo Credit: Catholic Anchor Planned Parenthood is in court this week challenging a state law that prohibits Alaska abortion practitioners from being reimbursed by the state for performing “elective” abortions which are not done to preserve the life or physical health of the mother.

With the help of ACLU of Alaska, Planned Parenthood is arguing for why the law should be overturned. The case, Planned Parenthood v Davidson, is being argued before Anchorage Superior Court Judge John Suddock, who put the law on hold last summer until Planned Parenthood had an opportunity to argue its case in court.

Supporters of the law note that it closes loopholes that have been exploited by abortion practitioners to gain public funding for “elective” abortions.

The law clarifies when an abortion is considered “medically necessary” under the law and thus eligible for state funding, versus when the procedure is considered merely “elective.”

As in other states, Alaska is subject to the long-standing federal law — the Hyde Amendment — that stipulates that federal dollars can only pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest or to preserve the mother’s life. But if none of those conditions apply, abortion practitioners in Alaska have been able to simply claim that an abortion was “medically necessary” and general funds from the state would then pay for abortions of low-income women on Medicaid.

Prior to 2001, Alaska was only required to pay for abortions where the life of the mother was endangered or the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, consistent with federal law.

Then in 2001, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that Alaska must use state funds to pay for all “medically necessary” abortions even if the federal government would not. As a result, for the last 12 years, Alaska has paid for all abortions requested by abortion practitioners without ever defining the term “medically necessary.”

In clarifying when an abortion is deemed “medically necessary” Senate Bill 49 stated that the condition is met when there is a “serious risk to the pregnant woman of death; or impairment of a major bodily function.”

Psychological or mental health threats are not covered as medically necessary reasons for an abortion.

But not all pro-life advocates are supportive of the new law. Most notably, Alaska Right to Life issued a strong statement against the legislation because it specifically excludes unborn babies who are conceived in rape or incest.

But one of the most prominent pro-life organizations in the state, Alaska Family Action, supported passage of the law, calling it a “common sense measure that simply requires physicians to describe why they are determining that a procedure is medically necessary.”

Abortion supporters such as Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the nation, opposed the law and with the legal aid of ACLU of Alaska is asking the court to overturn the law.

The public is free to attend the court sessions each day from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. According to ACLU of Alaska, Planned Parenthood’s main doctor in the trial, Dr. Jan Whitefield, is scheduled to testify on Friday. Closing arguments are expected to happen next Thursday or Friday. (“Planned Parenthood Challenging Alaska Law Limiting Elective Abortions”, originally posted HERE, reposted with permission)

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Interior Secretary Jewell Visits Eroding Alaska Village

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In temperatures slightly higher than Washington, D.C.’s, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell got a firsthand look Monday at the effect of climate change on an Alaska coastal community.

Jewell visited Kivalina, a village of 370 on a barrier island just off Alaska’s northwest coast, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

Once protected from early winter storms by a natural barrier of sea ice, Kivalina has been ravaged in recent decades by erosion because climate warming prevents ice from forming until later in the winter.

“You can see the impact of coastal erosion in the village,” Jewell said. “You can hear the fear in people’s voices about what’s happening with climate change. Things are changing up here, and that’s part of what I’m on this trip to learn about.” (Read more about the visit to the Alaska village HERE)

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Alaska GOP-Controlled House Votes More Bureaucracy, Endorses Law of the Sea Treaty and UN Control

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State House Bill 1 (HB1) was ramrodded through a Juneau floor vote on Friday with a strong push from the rural Bush Caucus. Many legislators didn’t know it was coming up for a floor vote until the night before and felt rushed to study it in a manner that brought back memories of Nancy Pelosi’s railroading through of the Affordable Care Act when she said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

If HB1 is passed by the State Senate in its current form and signed into law, it can cause a host of problematic consequences for the citizens of Alaska and United States Sovereignty as a whole. First, it will add additional layers of state bureaucracy at a time when the Alaska Legislature is bleeding the annual GDP of a small seafaring nation by spending over $6B with only $2B in revenue largely because we already have over 24k state employees we can’t afford now. Adding more state employees and red tape to further moribund our natural resource development does not make economic sense. Secondly, it sends a clear message to President Obama and the United States Senate that Alaska residents support the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty which would cede U.S. sovereignty and wealth to a UN organization!

This bill is heavily reminiscent of the attempt to create the Alaska Coastal Zone Management Program (ACZMP) with Ballot Measure Prop 2 back in 2012. It looks like the spirit of this has been re-crafted into this bill to circumvent the will of the Alaskan voters who trounced Prop 2 at the polls.

Growing state bureaucracy typically results in increased delays and costs, while resulting in poorer decision making in the end. As far as the arctic goes, development and research efforts are presently underway through the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission that already consists of plenty of “seats at the table.”

By far though the greatest logic blunder in HB1 is the Alaska GOP House support for the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty (see subpart E on page 3 line 27 of the Bill). If the U.S. Senate were to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty, it would reduce Alaska’s “bargaining position at the table” as it were and cede this to a U.N. organization known as the ‘ISA’ or International Seabed Authority. The Law of the Sea Treaty includes some very disturbing elements. It would compromise our national defense capabilities and require the redistribution of wealth from the US Treasury to undeveloped countries, some of which intensely dislike us and are state sponsors of terrorism!

If our legislators took the time to poll Alaskans, they would soundly reject the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty provision expressed in HB1 by a margin larger than our state coastline. Alaskans by in large are not fans of the United Nations and HB1 is a sneaky way of circumventing both their views and the results of Ballot Prop 2 that soundly rejected the Alaska Coastal Zone Management Program in 2012.

This bill now proceeds to the State Senate where it must be killed. When state legislators vote contrary to the will of the majority of Alaskan citizens on not one voter issue but two, they arise the heat of the electorate which could melt the very thin ice they are treading on.

Here’s how the recent vote went:

Yeas: Chenault, Claman, Colver, Drummond, Foster, Gara, Gruenberg, Guttenberg, Hawker, Herron, Hughes, Johnson, Josephson, Kawasaki, Keller, Kito, Kreiss-Tomkins, Millett, Munoz, Neuman, Olson, Ortiz, Pruitt, Reinbold, Saddler, Seaton, Stutes, Talerico, Tarr, Thompson, Tilton, Wool.

Nays: Gattis, Wilson.

Excused: Edgmon, LeDoux, Lynn, Nageak, Tuck, Vazquez.

Click HERE for text of the bill.

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Flight Service Has Been Cut Off for Three Weeks to Alaskan Village

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The only flight service to a remote Alaska island village has been cut off for three weeks because a designated helicopter was sidelined by maintenance work.

Oregon-based Erickson Aviation spokeswoman Susie Elliott says service to Alaska’s Little Diomede Island is expected to resume Saturday. The last flight to the tiny community of Diomede was Jan. 22.

Company officials say the helicopter was in Anchorage for maintenance when extensive problems were discovered on the aircraft. Elliott says a backup helicopter also had maintenance issues. (Read more about the flight service being cut off to the Alaskan village HERE)

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Ship Company, Engineer Reach Deal in Alaska Pollution Case

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A ship company based in Germany and the chief engineer on one of its vessels have agreed to plead guilty to illegally dumping oily water off Alaska.

Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that AML Ship Management GMBH and Nicolas Sassin, the chief engineer on the AML-operated ship City of Tokyo, agreed to plead guilty to violating federal clean water law by knowingly dumping 4,500 gallons of oily bilge water south of the Aleutian Islands.

The company and Sassin, 45, face a separate charge of presenting false pollution oversight records to the U.S. Coast Guard when the vessel docked in Portland, Oregon, prosecutors said.

As part of the plea deal, AML agreed to pay $800,000 in fines and community service payments.

Prosecutors are recommending a six-month jail sentence for Sassin, to run concurrent with any jail time imposed from a conviction in the Oregon case. (Read more about the Alaska pollution case HERE)

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Assisted Suicide Legislation Rears its Ugly Head in Alaska‏

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Yesterday Representative Harriet Drummond introduced what’s being called “Right-to-Die” or assisted suicide legislation in the Alaska Legislature. This bill (HB99) specifically violates the mission of Alaska Right to Life to “protect and defend innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural end of life”.

Every human being is made in the image of God and is infinitely valuable. God is the one that determines our beginning and our end. We should never tolerate legislation that puts suffering and vulnerable people into the position playing God and taking their own life with the help of their doctor. God’s command “thou shalt not kill” extends to everyone, even in the case of someone contemplating ending their own life.

From a practical standpoint, patients who are given no hope of survival from their doctors are known to have survived and gone on to live profitable and happy lives. A diagnosis can be wrong and taking one’s own life to escape from a current condition shuts off any hope of recovery.

Assisted suicide, no matter how compassionate it may seem on the surface, is nothing more than a cruel lie. To the terminally ill, it tells them that there is no meaning to their life and that when they become a “burden” to others suicide is the easiest answer for everyone. It also robs them of something integral to the human spirit – hope. Real compassion takes time and commitment. It means standing by someone and bearing their burden.

Terminally ill patients in Alaska need love, care and protection from those around them. Instead of killing the pain that terminally ill patients are suffering, these “right to die” activists focus on killing the patient. Few of them seem enthusiastic about educating healthcare professionals about the amazing advances in palliative care. Alaska can definitely do better than assisted suicide.

In a state with the highest suicide rates per capita, why would we think it is a good idea to pass legislation that would, in effect, be encouraging suicide?

In an age of soaring healthcare costs and cutbacks, how much longer until the “right to die” becomes the “duty to die?” How much longer until those considered a “burden” on society are systematically denied healthcare and life-saving measures in order to cut costs?

Alaska Right to Life stands in opposition to HB99 and asks that you contact Health & Social Services Committee Chairman Paul Seaton and demand that he not schedule the bill for a hearing. You can contact Representative Seaton via email at [email protected] or by phone at 907-465-2689. It is imperative that we protect and defend all innocent human life!

(Read more from Alaska Right to Life HERE)

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