Recently, the House of Representatives received House Bill 69 back from the Senate. This is a bill that, when it first left the House, was a multifaceted education package that I supported. When HB 69 returned to the House floor, all the work and amendments agreed upon earlier in the House were stripped out in Senate Finance, with only the funding element remaining (a $1,000 increase to our base student allocation).

The policy items contained in the version of HB 69 that passed out of the House included policies that would support all varieties of schools, students and teachers, with provisions changing our conversations about test scores and outcomes from proficiency alone to proficiency and growth measures, cellphone policies and reading proficiency incentive grants to name a few.

I think it is important to understand this critical step in the legislative process. Once a bill has been changed in the other legislative body, the body of origin gets only one vote to agree with the changes or they may disagree. I disagreed with the changes made by the Senate.

When HB 69 originally passed the House on March 12, I spoke on the House floor that the content of the bill represented “a consensus, maybe even the word compromise.” It was a bill that had “the legs to make it to the finish line.” The Senate Finance Committee changed all that.

Let me be clear, this in no way means I changed my support for additional education funding — this means I am tired of the games we play at the political level to “score” points for the election season against opponents from one side or the other. And that was the purpose of that change from the Senate Finance Committee. As it stands, we have a lot of work to do in this session, and I stand ready to do the work necessary on education and other issues important in our state.

Please reach out with any comments or concerns by emailing Rep.Justin.Ruffridge@akleg.gov or calling 907-465-2693.