COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Is there anybody else that would care to testify?
MS. MALLOT: (Indiscernible -- away from microphone.)
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Toni? Please.
MS. MALLOT: (Indiscernible to transcribe verbatim as away from microphone. In general, asked about the Education Task Force hearing.)
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: They -- I -- there's not -- Toni, they're not scheduled to meet this afternoon. There is another hearing, kind of composite hearing on Saturday; but if you're not going to be here. We'd be glad to take your testimony and get it on the record, or you can testify Saturday. Whatever you would prefer.
MS. MALLOT: (Indiscernible -- away from microphone.)
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: It's
Saturday morning --
REPORTER: From 9:00 to 12:00.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: At 9:00?
REPORTER: 9 o'clock.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: At 9 a.m., and that will be before the full Commission; and -- or you're welcome to give your testimony here. Whatever you would prefer.
(Pause.)
MS. MALLOT: Will you be here this afternoon?
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: No, there'll be a Governance Task Force meeting here this afternoon; and you ca -- I'm sure they'll -- I can't speak for that group; but I imagine they would be glad to take your testimony there as well, or Saturday morning.
MS. MALLOT: Gosh. If I testify now, you'll make sure that --
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: If you tes -- now -- testify, Toni, we will -- I will cut that excerpt out, and I'll carry it over personally to the Education Committee.
(Laughter.)
MS. MALLOT: (Indiscernible -- away from microphone.)
(Pause.)
I should--
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Wou --
MS. MALLOT: -- state who I am?
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Would the record show that this should be part of the Education Task Force minutes, please, for Toni Mallot.
MS. MALLOT: My name is Toni Mallot; and I'm currently a teacher in Juneau; and I've been teaching there for three years. And I guess I'm -- I can kind of blame myself for not going out and seeking information; but I was really not informed -- or informative about the Educational Task Force; and so when I found out, well, hey, there's an Educational Task Force, you know, now is the time to kind of get some of my concerns across.
And I have a couple of concerns, and I guess the biggest one that I'm really concerned about is that, over the past five or six years as a board member on the Indian Studies Board, I've seen every year a decrease in federal funding; so that every year we're having a difficult time meeting all of the pro -- all of the current needs that our program has to fulfill for the students in Juneau; and so, you know, this has been going on for about five years, and so every year our budget has been getting tighter; and we don't have any money to buy new material. You know, we were able to talk the school district out of it; but, you know, that's getting pretty difficult; so I guess the one recommendation that I'd like to make is I'd like to see increases in federal and state program funding to meet the growing educational cul -- educational and cultural needs of all Alaskan children.
And, you know, the federal government has been, I feel, consistently decreasing the amount of funds appropriated for programs such as Indian studies, JOM, and Head Start; and, you know, our -- I feel that our children should have the opportunity to learn and be literate in Native culture, traditions, history, and society, in order to be successful Alaskans; and if you -- if the federal government, and even the state is in -- consistently cutting funds, then their opportunity goes down. So that's one recommendation that I'd like the task force to really put -- to put on their brochure.
And another recommendation is possibly for the task force to look into a program that's offered in Hawaii, and it's called the Office of Cultural and Native Affairs; and it -- I believe they both get federal and state funding; they look into cultural, historical, educational affairs of Native Hawaiians; and they do such traditional events as the traditional voyage from the South Seas to Hawaii, you know, where they build a replica of the ancient sailing canoe. And so, actually, this office promotes a lot of history and tradition; and I know they get federal, and also the state sponsors that program.
So I would sure like to have, you know, this program -- or this Commission look into that program and see how Alaska could develop a similar program; because there are a number of Hawaiians -- in the state of Alaska, that I think the population -- when you look at it on a per-capita basis, we're very similar.
Those are the only two recommendations I have.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Okay, Toni. Any question mark from the Commission members?
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: No, I don't have any.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: We will make sure -- the recorder has indicated she'll make sure that those comments get in --
MS. MALLOT: Okay.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: -- to the Education Task Force minutes and notes; and so they will be part of the record.
MS. MALLOT: Yeah, and, you know, I guess I was a little bit kind of taken aback when I did see the -- just the small number of members that were serving on that Educational Task Force; and I feel that they should increase their numbers, and also increase other Alaska Native educators.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Okay,
MS. MALLOT: You know, I'm sure they're qualified people on that task force; but I think they ought to look around and see who else --
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: There -- yeah, they do have --
MS. MALLOT: -- is available.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Like this Commission, they do have public members as well; and --
MS. MALLOT: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: -- I don't know if they listed the public members of the --
MS. MALLOT: Oh, they did.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: -- Commission. Okay, and you still think it's still --
MS. MALLOT: They on -- three only listed --
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: -- a bit small?
MS. MALLOT: - - three Educational Task Force members.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Three Commission members?
MS. MALLOT: On the Educational Task Force.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yeah, I think that's all there are.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: And then you have the public members as well.
MS. MALLOT: And there were --
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yeah, there are public --
MS. MALLOT: -- there were three or four --
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: -- members, too.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Right.
MS. MALLOT: -- public members. You're talking about six or seven for an issue that's very -- I mean, it's a big, heavy-duty issue here in Alaska.
COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Okay. Thank you, Toni.
MS. MALLOT: Okay, sure. Thank you.
This document was ocr scanned. We have made every
attempt to keep the online document the same as the original,
including the recorder's original misspellings or typos.
