Giessel-Newsletter

Dear friends and neighbors, It’s so great to get out in our trails, lakes, and rivers on these sunny days! Fortunately one of the sunny days was on Juneteenth holiday. (Photo: Rabbit Lake with my 2 fur children.)

Dear friends and neighbors, Education Funding and a Veto Override Clearly, the biggest recent news is Governor Dunleavy’s unprecedented veto of education funding. The veto is not unexpected but its still dumbfounding to see this attack on our children and our future.

Dear friends and neighbors, I really wasn’t expecting an “every 2 week newsletter” to be this long but I keep seeing things that it seems you would want to know!

Dear friends and neighbors, At 9 AM this morning, the Joint Session of the 34th Legislature voted (46-14) to override the Governor’s Veto of the Education Bill (SB 57). The last time a Governor’s veto was overriden was under Governor Sarah Palin in 2009.

Dear friends and neighbors, Budget work is a mystery unless you know the system. Here is “Budget Conference Committee 101”

Dear friends and neighbors, I will be sending out a couple newsletters as things happen fast in the remaining 6 days: Budgets. Bills. Vetoes.

Dear friends and neighbors, Thank you to everyone who attended the Town Hall meeting on May 3. Representatives Kopp and Holland joined me in hearing from about 45-50 folks.

Dear friends and neighbors, Art work from Alaska schools is displayed in the Capitol. These are art pieces from St Elizabeth Ann School on Huffman Rd.

Dear friends and neighbors, April 24 Alaska Constitution Day On this day, April 24, 1956 , the people of Alaska voted to ratify the Alaska Constitution that had been drafted by the Constitutional Convention. The Convention had met at the University of Alaska (in Fairbanks, the only campus in those days) from November 8, 1955 to

Dear friends and neighbors, Education: Accountability “Schools need to be accountable.” “No increase in school funding until there’s accountability.” The Anchorage School District has more data on their website than you would have time to read: spending, testing results, staffing numbers. Links to the ASD data are below, in a section of this newsletter.