How important is giving good education to rural Alaskans? Well, if you live out here in one of the villages, you would say that it is very important to have a good education, because the world is changing so fast you couldn't possibly live successfully without a high school diploma. But people in Juneau don't seem to realize the significance of education here in rural Alaska. They have proposed Senate Bill 36 which would give $23 million dollars of rural education funding to Anchorage and Fairbanks. Even though they did take out a 4% income tax that only people working in REAA's would have paid, there is still a big issue about the amount of money the state is going to take away from the rural schools. Students in rural areas would still be learning, but they wouldn't be getting a quality education because the schools in these districts wouldn't be getting enough money to hire enough teachers or buy the appropriate materials necessary for learning.

If SB 36 passes, the Lower Yukon School District will be losing $1.5 million to urban schools. Who could call that fair? That's a lot of money that could be used on books and other learning tools for our schools. Right now you hear students in Marshall School asking teachers why the school can't get this or that? The teachers all have the same answers for the students, "The school doesn't have enough money," or, "The district doesn't have enough money." How is it going to be when the LYSD doesn't get the additional $1 .5 million the state is going to take away? It's like this bill is telling us that urban students are more important to educate than the students in rural Alaska. I would call this discriminating against rural schools! I think that all people are equally important to educate. We all deserve as good an education as everybody else.

If the State Legislature has its way, it is going to be hard on all the schools in the Lower Yukon School District, and it is going to be hard on the students. They might even have to travel to Anchorage or Fairbanks to get a quality education. And It could be hard for some families to send their kids away to school because they need all the help they can get around the house, or they just don't have enough money. Even though the students would still be learning if they stayed in rural Alaska, it's hard to tell if staying here for school would be worth it. Rural schools probably wouldn't have enough money to pay for enough teachers and other things, like maintenance, to keep the schools in good shape and provide for an efficient learning environment.

This bill is on the floor of the Senate right now, and nobody knows what is going to happen to it. If you really care about your own education or your children's education, you should write to your senators or representatives and tell them what you think. The more negative responses to this bill, the better. If the Senate does pass this bill, it is going to be really different here in the L.Y.S.D., as well as in all the other rural Alaskan school districts.

It is hard to understand why the Senate is considering this bill. It is also hard to understand who would have the heart to think up something like this. From living in the village all these years, it is easy for me to conclude that the people who thought up this bill were people from the cities, because they don't know what it is like living out in rural Alaska.

Charlotte Alstrom