[Senate Hearing 108-468]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 108-468
RURAL TEACHER HOUSING ACT
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
S. 1905
TO PROVIDE HABITABLE QUARTERS FOR TEACHERS, ADMINISTRATORS, OTHER
SCHOOL STAFF, AND THEIR HOUSEHOLDS IN RURAL AREAS OF ALASKA LOCATED
NEAR ALASKA NATIVE VILLAGES
__________
MARCH 16, 2004
ANCHORAGE, AK
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
92-775 WASHINGTON : DC
____________________________________________________________________________
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COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado, Chairman
DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Vice Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona, KENT CONRAD, North Dakota
PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico HARRY REID, Nevada
CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota
JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota
GORDON SMITH, Oregon MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
Paul Moorehead, Majority Staff Director/Chief Counsel
Patricia M. Zell, Minority Staff Director/Chief Counsel
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
S. 1905, text of................................................. 4
Statements:
Angapak, Sr., Nelson, executive vice president, Alaska
Federation of Natives, Anchorage, AK....................... 26
Cole, Peggy, teacher, Emmonak School, Lower Yukon School
District, Emmonak, AK...................................... 14
Davis, Jennifer, Technology Trainer, Northwest Arctic Borough
School District, Alaska.................................... 16
Hill, Frank, co-director, Alaska Rural Systemic Initiatives
and former superintendent, Lake and Peninsula Borough
School District, Anchorage, AK............................. 26
Madsen, Eric, director, Rural Program Development, School of
Education, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK............. 24
Murkowski, Hon. Lisa, U.S. Senator from Alaska............... 1
Simon, Christopher, superintendent, Yukon-Koyukuk School
District, Fairbanks, AK.................................... 18
Appendix
Prepared statements:
Bauer, Dave former principal, Savoonga School, Bering Strait
School District............................................ 37
Cladouhos, president/CEO, Norton Sound Health Corporation.... 37
Clark, Robert J., president/CEO, Bristol Bay Area Health
Corporation................................................ 38
Cole, Peggy.................................................. 38
Davis, Jennifer.............................................. 39
Hill, Frank.................................................. 40
Hill, Melissa, Alaska teacher placement progam director...... 42
Madsen, Eric................................................. 43
Rose, Carl, executive director, Association of Alaska School
Boards (with attachment)................................... 44
Sampson, Roger, commissioner, Department of Education and
Early Development.......................................... 46
Simon, Christopher........................................... 47
RURAL TEACHER HOUSING ACT
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TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2004
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Anchorage, AK.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 a.m. in
Conference Room 2, First Floor, Alaska Native Medical Center,
Anchorage, AK, Hon. Lisa Murkowski (acting chairman of the
committee) presiding.
Present: Senator Murkowski.
STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI, U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
Senator Murkowski. As acting chairman of the U.S. Senate
Indian Affairs Committee, I call this hearing to order.
This hearing is on S. 1905, the Rural Teacher Housing Act
of 2003 which I introduced in the Senate late last year. I have
invited a panel of witnesses from across the state to share
their thoughts and personal experiences on this very important
issue with me today. As we all know, rural school districts in
our State face the challenge of recruiting and retaining
teachers, administrators, and other school staff due to the
lack of housing in many of our rural communities. For example,
1 year in the Lower Kuskokwim School District they hired one
teacher for every six who decided not to accept job offers.
One-half of the applicants decided not to accept a teaching
position in that district based on the lack of housing. Last
year when I traveled with U.S. Secretary of Education, Rod
Paige, I wanted to have him see firsthand the challenge of
educating our children in rural Alaska. At the village school
in Savoonga we met with the principal who was living in a broom
closet. We met the special education teacher who at the end of
the day pulled a mattress out of a closet in her classroom and
slept on the floor of the classroom there. The other teachers
shared housing in a single home. So, needless to say, there is
no room, there is no space for spouses, for families in many of
our communities. And Savoonga, unfortunately, is not an
isolated example.
We were able to make a tangible difference after our visit
in Savoonga. As a result of something that we call the Alaska
Project which is a Cabinet-level task force consisting of the
Federal departments of Education, Health and Human Services,
and Housing and Urban Development, focused on interagency
collaboration to address education, health, and housing
challenges that face Alaska. We were able to implement a short-
term housing solution there in Savoonga along with our other
partners, Denali Commission, State of Alaska, Alaska Housing
Finance Corporation, HUD, HHS, the Bering Strait School
District, the city of Savoonga, Savoonga IRA Council and the
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. In working with all of
these stake-holders, we secured an agreement that will allow
the Bering Strait School District to use the former Savoonga
clinic building to house teachers for a period of a couple
years beginning last November. And with Denali Commission
funding, we were able to renovate the clinic and teachers that
were previously living in the Savoonga school are now
temporarily housed in the renovated clinic.
I am also working on other initiatives to--to deal with the
housing issues for our teachers. I have secured up to $10
million in the Denali Commission's fiscal year 2004 budget for
teacher housing projects in rural communities. I am hopeful
that a portion of that funding or any other available housing
funding will also go not only to Savoonga to address the long-
term challenge of teacher housing there, but to our other rural
communities.
When we look at the example of Savoonga, we recognize again
this is not just an isolated instance. What is happening in the
other parts of rural Alaska, what can we do? And so this
legislation that I've introduced, S. 1905, does address the
Statewide problem. If we don't address the situation in terms
of teacher housing, we really have no way to deal with the
issue of recruitment and retention. Turnover in some of our
rural areas is as high as 30 percent each year. And housing is
truly a major factor, if not the number one factor, in that
turnover rate. And as we are faced with the many challenges
that present themselves with education, whether it's meeting
the Federal requirements of No Child Left Behind, whether its
declining State budgets that affect our education budget, we
recognize that we must do something on this issue if we expect
our children to get a good education. The only way they can get
a good education is if we have good teachers. And if our good
teachers are not willing to commit to a community because of
inadequate housing, we haven't helped our kids.
So my bill authorizes the Federal Department of Housing and
Urban Development to provide the teacher housing funds to AHFC.
In turn, AHFC is authorized to provide grant and loan funds to
the rural school districts in Alaska for teacher housing
projects. This will allow the school districts to address the
housing shortage through construction of units, purchasing
units, leasing, rehabilitating, purchasing leased property,
purchasing rehabilitated properties, repay loans secured for
teacher housing projects, provide funding to fill any gaps not
previously funded by loans or other forms of financing, and
conduct any other activities normally related to construction.
These activities are is an important part of it because these
activities would include tasks such as connecting housing units
to various utilities. You might be able to get the housing
units out there, but if they're not hooked into the utilities
it doesn't do us much good. It also would cover the preparation
of construction sites and transporting all equipment and
material necessary for the project to and from the construction
or renovation site. And as all of you know who have spent any
time in the rural areas, this last component is very important
because of the high transportation costs that are involved;
getting the materials and equipment there is a huge
undertaking. Eligible school districts that accept funds under
this legislation will be required to provide the housing to
teachers, administrators, other school staffs and members of
their household.
In closing, it is imperative that we address this important
issue immediately, and allow the flexibility for the
disbursement of funds to be handled at the state level. The
quality of education for our rural students is at stake, and
this is why we have moved forward with, I feel, very, very
important legislation. We have asked a select group of
individuals to join us in presenting their testimony here
today. There are two panels that we will hear from, but I will
invite any who would like to submit written testimony to do so.
We will keep the record open on this for an additional 2 weeks
from today's hearing date. So if in fact you would like to
submit additional testimony, please feel free to do so. We've
asked our witnesses to limit their testimony to 5 minutes. If
they would like to add more in written comment to be added to
the record beyond that, they are certainly welcome to do that
as well. If you are interested in submitting any testimony to
the record, the committee aide for the Committee on Indian
Affairs is with us, and we will make sure that you have that
information so that you can give that to the appropriate
individuals at the appropriate time.
[Text of S. 1905 follows:]
Senator Murkowski. So, at this time I would like to invite
those on panel 1 to join me at the table. Peggy Cole is a
teacher and NEA member from Emmonak School in the Lower Yukon
School District, Jennifer Davis, the Itinerant Technology
Trainer, NEA Alaska member is, associated with the Northwest
Arctic Borough School District up in Kotzebue, and Christopher
Simon, is the superintendent of the Yukon-Koyukuk School
District out of Fairbanks, AK. So if the three of you can just
join us up front here, please.
Ms. Cole, if we can begin the testimony with you. Welcome,
and I am pleased to have you with the committee this morning.
STATEMENT OF PEGGY COLE, TEACHER AND NATIONAL EDUCATION
ASSOCIATION--ALASKA MEMBER, EMMONAK SCHOOL, LOWER YUKON SCHOOL
DISTRICT, EMMONAK, AK
Ms. Cole. Thank you, Senator Murkowski. My name is Peggy
Cole and I'm a teacher in the Lower Yukon School District
[LYSD], located in western Alaska. Our school district consists
of 11 sites spread along the Yukon River and the Bering
seacoast covering approximately 22,000 square miles. We have
2,039 students, 99 percent of which are Yupik Eskimo. I have
taught in LYSD for 12 years and have lived in teacher housing
during that time. My family and I have lived in three villages
in our school district. At each site, we have lived in BIA
housing units, which are about 50 or more years old with very
little maintenance throughout those 50 years. They have many
problems and are in need of costly repairs. In the villages in
which we live, we are required by contract to live in the
teacher housing that is provided by the school district, and
they pickup the cost of utilities and water and sewer and we
pay a rent to the school district which comes directly out of
our salary. So in many cases, it looks to people like we make a
very large salary, but when you start deducting our rent from
that salary and 5 percent of our salary to boot, it gets to be
quite a bit of money. We were able, at our last negotiations,
to negotiate out the 5 percent because it was penalizing our
higher paid and more experienced teachers and they were leaving
the district because it was costing them so much. So we were
able to get that out of our contract. And right at this point,
our housing rent is fairly low but--that's going to change in
another year when we have to go back to the table. They've
already told us they plan to up the rent. In our villages there
are virtually no houses available to rent, and what is
available would be considered to be very substandard by most
people. In the villages the housing that the people live in
themselves is substandard. They're open around the bottom.
They're very cold. Many of them do not have running water. They
do not have adequate sewage, transportation back and forth.
Many of the villages still have what we call ``honey buckets''
which means there is no sewage in the house. You have to take
your bucket and empty it. And there are--fortunately, in our
District, no teachers living in that condition, but if we were
to try to rent from the communities we would have that type of
housing in some communities. The cost of living in rural Alaska
is very high compared to Anchorage. And a very simple example
is that milk in Anchorage costs about $3.50 a gallon, whereas
in rural Alaska and the village that I'm from it's $9 a gallon,
and it's not always available. Supplies of all types have to be
flown into the village during the year, or barged-in during the
summer months. There are no roads connecting western Alaska to
a hub where supplies can be purchased. And I think that this
might be really important for people that don't live in Alaska
to fully understand our condition, that we have to fly in to
our village. We can't drive there. There are no choices for us
as far as supplies or places to live. When you're in the
village or flown into the village, that's where you stay until
you decide to fly out at Christmas possibly, or in the
summertime. So there's very little available.
While working in our school district, I have had the
opportunity, as the president of our local association, to
visit many of our teacher housing units. We have 104 in our
school district. In the last 12 years there have been only
eight new buildings constructed, new units. During the summer
of 1996, as a cost saving measure, our District purchased three
mobile homes and barged them to Hooper Bay to act as teacher
housing. Well, that didn't work at all because when they set
them up on foundations, they came apart and the walls cracked
and there were many, many water and sewer problems. And our
school district does want to keep the rent at a reasonable
price in order to attract and retain quality teachers which
will provide stability in our classroom, but building new
houses in rural Alaska is extremely costly. So last summer, the
summer of 2003 as a ``Band-Aid'' to our problem, the District
spent $1 million from their capital improvements fund in order
to upgrade our existing housing throughout the District. And
these upgrades have helped to make the houses look better
aesthetically, you know, you look at them, oh gee, they're
painted on the outside for the first time in 50 years and some
of them have some new carpet and new paint on the walls. But
the underlying issues with water and sewer, electrical,
structural have not been solved. In fact, in my own housing
unit where I live in Emmonak, our power went out at Christmas
2002. We lost all the meat in our freezer. They came out and
there was some problem underground which they couldn't fix
because the ground was frozen, so they hay-wired our house
across to the old BIA school building, and it remained that
way, they were supposed to fix it this summer. It was never
fixed. So we're still hay-wired and now weekly our electricity
goes off. We have to call the principal. They have to go over
and flip a switch in the old school. And the switch is like a
70 amp fuse and our house is over 200 amps, so it doesn't work.
It's not been repaired. And to me, it's dangerous. You know,
the house could burn down, and we have issues like that all
over our school district. At some sites our single teachers are
required to live together because of the scarcity of adequate
housing units. That does not promote stability in our teaching
staffs. Because many teachers don't want to be dropped into a
situation where you have to live with a total stranger. People
are unhappy. They don't get along. Some teachers have been
known to move out of their housing unit and go live in their
classroom because they could not get along with this total
stranger that is living with them.
The bill that Senator Murkowski has introduced would be an
awesome bill if we could get it passed because it would
certainly help our local school districts find the funding that
they need to build the housing in the school district for the
teachers in order to retain quality teachers. It would also
provide jobs for our local people because they would help with
the construction, so that--the communities would be very
accepting of that because it would give them an income into
their households. So with the added stress to the budget of the
new NCLB law and the increase to our PERS and TERS and the
increasing cost of insurance, in our school district there is
no money available. S. 1905, the Rural Teacher Housing Act of
2003, which Senator Murkowski is sponsoring, would make moneys
available to these rural districts, like LYSD. This money would
allow our district to build new teacher housing units, which
would help to entice teachers to come to rural Alaska to work.
The passage of this bill would also allow the district to get
the needed money to bring all of our housing units up to the
rigid standards of today's world. I strongly encourage you to
support Senator Murkowski in her efforts to get S. 1905 passed.
Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Ms. Cole appears in appendix.]
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Ms. Cole. I appreciate your
testimony.
Ms. Davis.
STATEMENT OF JENNIFER DAVIS, ITINERANT TECHNOLOGY TRAINER AND
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION--ALASKA MEMBER, NORTHWEST ARCTIC
BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT, KOTZEBUE, AK
Ms. Davis. Thank you, Senator Murkowski. I work as an
itinerant technology trainer for my school district, and that
means a morning commute of one-half hour to 1 hour on a bush
plane as I travel through the 11 villages in our district. And,
they vary in size from about 100 people to 3,000 in our hub
community, Kotzebue, where I live. There are no roads
connecting these communities, and our school district is about
37,000 square miles or approximately the size of Indiana. In
Kotzebue where I live, there is no school district provided
housing. Everyone is required to locate their own housing in
the community and then pay extremely high costs for what many
consider to be substandard conditions. I live in a 250-square
foot apartment or approximately one-fifth of the size of this
room, and I pay $1,050 a month in rent. I actually feel very
lucky that I was able to find an apartment that is clean and
comfortable even though it is very small. There is a shortage
of housing in Kotzebue, so people will take anything they can
find, sight unseen, over the phone when they move there. Which
is what I did. I spoke to two other new teachers on the phone
before moving to Kotzebue and we arranged to live together in
order to save money, and moved into a so-called furnished
apartment that had one couch, one bed in a three bedroom, and
we each paid $800 a month. The place was filthy and sinking
into the permafrost on one side, so we had everything roll
across the apartment. After 1 year of living like that, I did
not think I would stay in Kotzebue, but luckily I moved into my
current housing, and as I said, it is comfortable.
So I have made it my home. And housing, if it's not
comfortable, you can't make it your home, and that's why we
lose so many teachers. It's not home to them. As I travel
around to all of the villages in my district, I do stay with
teachers. There are no hotels and so I'm on couches and floors
in other teacher housing and I get to see all of it. It varies
greatly from site to site. We have many teachers who have to
lease from the community and those places are not kept up. Many
have ``honey buckets'', no running water, no sewer, and you
empty the bucket. Very high costs of housing also. The school
district has provided housing in most of the communities and it
is subsidized. But the quality is very substandard. Places
would be condemned in many parts of the country. Every fall
they get overrun by shrews, they're called little rodents, into
the housing. In villages that will allow it, the teachers will
try to purchase housing. Occasionally they can make a plea to
the regional IRA council and ask if they can lease, since they
cannot buy land to build housing on. We have teachers who would
love to make our communities home, but housing is such an issue
that they chose to leave and go somewhere where they can own or
build a house. There is the housing that we do have, the
district housing, which is in such need of renovations and
repairs. Teachers report unsafe living conditions in or around
their apartment, lacking in maintenance. We had a teacher
injured this year because of a leak in her ceiling that had
been there for about 1\1/2\ years, unrepaired, and she slipped
and fell and shattered her ankle. Some of our teachers have to
haul their own water and oil for their housing. That takes up
time away from their students and their classroom. I think that
the Rural Teacher Housing Act would help our district and
districts across the state, in attracting and retaining quality
teachers and educators. We currently have about a 30-percent
turnover every year of our teaching staff, and the conditions
and the cost of our housing is one of the main reasons that
people leave. Every year I think about signing my contract and
create a list of why I want to stay and why I would choose to
leave. And at the top of my list, and it is often the only
reason that I would leave, is my housing. This act would make
it possible for the district to build and provide housing for
Kotzebue teachers. We don't have any district housing, and it
would allow people to feel able to make it their home, to make
Kotzebue home. I would love to stay there long-term, but I
don't know if I can with the current housing situation. Most of
our villages need more housing to be built. There is not
enough. You've got teachers in a two-bedroom with four people
who did not know each other prior to living there, sharing
rooms, living in their classrooms. Our villages need more
housing and for serious renovations to be made. Many educators
move to Northwest Arctic with the intent of making it their
home but don't feel they have adequate, comfortable, affordable
housing. The high teacher turnover that we currently have is
hard on the children in the region and I think anything we can
do to improve teacher retention will benefit our students and
our kids. I think that this bill is a step in the right
direction. Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Ms. Davis appears in appendix.]
Senator Murkowski. Thank you.
Mr. Simon, good morning.
STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER SIMON, SUPERINTENDENT, YUKON-KOYUKUK
SCHOOL DISTRICT, FAIRBANKS, AK
Mr. Simon. Good morning, Senator. Thank you for your
interest and involvement in education issues in rural Alaska
and for working to address our concerns related to teacher
housing. I welcome the opportunity to provide support for S.
1905 and share experiences of providing teacher housing with
you. The Yukon-Koyukuk School District covers the Western
interior of Alaska, an area of 65,000 square miles.
Geographically, the district is larger than the State of
Washington. Our schools serve nine villages of about 1,650
people with 430 school-aged children in grades K-12. More than
90 percent of the students are Koyukon or Tanana Athabaskan
Indians. Except for Manley and Minto, travel to and from our
schools is by scheduled commuter or charter air service. Raven
correspondence School is a Statewide correspondence program,
which embraces 1,399 students and their families. Y-KSD employs
64 certified teachers, administrators and specialists, most of
whom are endorsed in their field of placement. According to
standardized test scores over the last 13 years, the students
at our village sites performed between the 18th and 40th
percentile. Over the last 5 years, there has been an increase
in the scores, which are currently sitting between the 30th and
40th percentile. Under No Child Left Behind, each school is to
meet Adequate Yearly Progress or eventually face sanctions. At
this point, four of our five village sites meet AYP, four
schools are at AYP Level I, and one is at AYP Level II. In
order to provide a sound education, attain better test results
to meet AYP and increase students' test scores, all rural
schools need outstanding teachers and principals. One of our
biggest obstacles in providing a sound education is teacher and
principal turnover. Between this year and last year, Y-KSD had
a 29-percent turnover in teachers and a 44-percent turnover in
principals. Three teachers and one school counselor left one or
more of our communities since school started in August. Studies
have shown that hiring teachers with three to five years of
experience pays the biggest dividends in the classroom. What we
have now is rural districts hiring young teachers who stay 2 to
4 years then leave to find employment in an urban district or
one that is connected by the road system. We are, in fact,
training teachers. Yet we are the ones who need experienced,
dedicated teachers for the children under our care. One of the
first questions an interested teacher or principals asks is
``Is housing provided? And if so, what is the rent?'' Not long
afterward is the question: ``Do I have to share housing?''
Adequate teacher housing is vital to the success of our
students. And unfortunately, the choice of spending scarce
resources for classroom equipment and supplies or for teacher
housing is something we face every year. Y-KSD would rather not
be in the business of teacher housing because it is being
operated at a loss.
Ten years ago, Y-KSD gave one-half of its teacher housing
to a village corporation free of charge. Last summer, this same
corporation gave the last housing unit back to the district.
Providing housing is a time-consuming and financial burden to
any organization. However, Y-KSD provides this service at a
loss so quality teachers may be hired to teach the children of
this district. The issue of substandard teacher housing is
raised in this bill. Yes, this is an issue this district faces.
Two years ago, Y-KSD provided a rental free-of-charge to a
couple and their two young children. This district did not want
to be held responsible if any harm came to this young family
due to the condition of the building. Currently, two teachers
are renting a duplex that is 29 years old and very inefficient.
The estimated operational cost is $247,000 over the next 6
years; 4 years ago, in another village, Y-KSD purchased a house
which included a storage shed. This same shed had been
converted to a housing unit; 3 years ago, a young man and his
daughter lived in the school for 2 months before finding a
local house to rent. Y-K has been trying to meet the housing
needs of its teachers. But in doing so, it takes funds and
maintenance time away from the schools. Since 2000, Y-KSD spent
$702,138 on housing instead of the classroom. The cost of
constructing a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house in 2002 was
$169,000. Included in this cost is the purchase price of
$99,677 and $69,992 for freight, construction, and utility
hook-ups. An estimated 17 rental units in 6 communities are
required to meet our teacher housing needs in the next few
years. YKSD simply does not have the amount of funds necessary
to build housing. In closing, teacher housing is a necessity
for rural districts, usually operated at a loss and takes
scarce resources away from the school. Any assistance that you
may provide would be greatly appreciated. And again, thank you
again for your interest and concern.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Simon appears in appendix.]
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Simon. Before we go into
the next panel, I've just got a few questions to ask the first
panelists. Ms. Cole, you were talking about the rent costs. You
indicated that the district was trying to keep the rental costs
down low and in fact there was some discussion about
renegotiation next year. What do you pay for rent right now?
Ms. Cole. In the unit that my husband and I presently
occupy which is a small two bedroom unit with our 10-year-old
daughter, we pay approximately $600 a month. That is down from
over $1000 a month that we were paying a couple of years ago
for the same substandard BIA housing.
Senator Murkowski. And then you indicated that you have
lived in or you taught in three other schools within the
district, can you just real briefly describe other housing
situations that you and your family have lived in in those
communities.
Ms. Cole. Yes; we first came to Lower Yukon School District
in 1992, we lived in the village of Hooper Bay which is a
large--one of the largest Eskimo villages, out on the Bering
Seacoast. There is no running water. No sewer in any of the
homes. The only place where that is, is in the school. We lived
in an old BIA building that had been the original school in
Hooper Bay 50 years ago, and had been remodeled into a housing
unit. It was--we had two children and my mother living with us
at the time. The house was roomy but had many, many problems as
far as sewer and lighting, the floors were rotted and things
like this. The windows were rotted. But the space was okay. We
moved from there to Mountain Village. We had adopted a baby in
Hooper Bay so we had a 2-year-old when we left Hooper Bay, and
our two daughters, and my mother was our live-in baby-sitter.
We moved into a unit in Mountain Village which was a very small
two bedroom unit. The bedrooms were maybe 10 x 11, and there
was not enough room for my mother and my baby daughter, so my
mother lived in the pantry with all the shelves removed and no
window. And our baby daughter lived in the bedroom with us and
we were wall-to-wall beds. There was no storage in the unit at
all. It was one of the larger units in Mountain Village. When
we arrived, it had many problems. The porch was rotted. There
was no railing. It was 8 feet off the ground. There was a hole
in the bathroom floor with open sewer running under of which we
were not aware. The feet of my three children were that close.
When they repaired it, the superintendent came with many
apologies that we had had to live that way for 3 years. From
there we moved to Emmonak where we live now. And that's the two
bedroom old BIA unit also with the electrical problems.
Senator Murkowski. You mentioned in addition to the high
cost of rent that you deal with, is just the high cost of
living out in any of the rural communities, you mentioned the
price of milk, that's always my judge in the rural versus urban
cost as I'm looking at milk, but the other thing I think many
people outside the State of Alaska don't recognize is the
transportation costs that you live with because we're not
connected by a road system. And in order to go to town, whether
town is described as Fairbanks or Anchorage, you've got to get
either on a jet, if you're lucky enough, or you have to fly, in
your case, from Emmonak into--I don't know where you go, down
to Bethel?
Ms. Cole. No; my husband and I can fly--Emmonak is one of
our only villages that has a direct flight to Anchorage, but
it's a 9-seat twin prop airplane.
Senator Murkowski. And what would you pay to fly into
Anchorage?
Ms. Cole. We pay $600 approximately, round-trip, for each
one of us. So if we come in for anything as a family, it's
$1,800 for a trip.
Senator Murkowski. These are the add-ons that people,
unfortunately, don't get. They don't appreciate the additional
costs that we experience. You had also indicated in your
testimony that there in, and I don't know whether it was just
in Emmonak or whether it's within the whole district, that
there have been some substantial upgrades made within the past
year, and I think you used the term, this was a mandate, a
cosmetic upgrade in terms of the paint, perhaps carpeting, but
how long has it been since the district has been able to do
what you would consider substantive upgrades to the
facilities--to the homes in the district?
Ms. Cole. Personally, I have been here 12 years and I have
never seen anything done until this last summer. And having
spoken to people that have been out there, and we do have some
diehards that have been there 20 years in the same district,
this is the first time they have ever had any maintenance done
on the housing, major maintenance. And it came out of our
negotiations because we told them we're paying--they were
requiring us to pay 5 percent of our salary plus a base rent
for different units which were classified anywhere from A-E,
``E'' being maybe a one bedroom about the size of Jennifer's,
if that big.``A'' being maybe a couple of bedrooms and maybe
not as old as the others. And we paid 5 percent of our salary,
and our complaint was, the more you make, the more you pay. And
so let's see something for this. We want the 5 percent gone and
we want some housing fixed. So as a result of our negotiations,
our superintendent who was new to our district at that time,
the following year after negotiations we flew around to visit
all the housing units and notes were made as to what needed to
be done. They coughed up $1 million, which sounds like a lot of
money, but when you spread it out between 104 units it's not a
lot of money. And that came right out of their funds, though.
That was out of their capital improvement funds. So, you know,
having money from the--from some other source would really,
really help to maintain that housing and upgrade.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you. I appreciate your responses.
Ms. Davis, you've indicated that you have been in Kotzebue now
for 5 years, where were you living before you arrived in
Kotzebue?
Ms. Davis. I was in Washington State teaching.
Senator Murkowski. So, you're not a native of Alaska then?
Ms. Davis. No.
Senator Murkowski. So you came to Alaska looking to come
and teach? Your first assignment was in Kotzebue?
Ms. Davis. Yes.
Senator Murkowski. And your first housing in Kotzebue then
was this kind of boarding house arrangement you've described?
Ms. Davis. Yes; I arranged--when new hires come up to the
district for Kotzebue they are mailed a list of all of the
other new hires, and all of the available potential housing in
Kotzebue, which is through the community, and everything is
arranged over the phone. The year that I was hired there were
no other single women, so my roommates were two young men. We
shared a two-bedroom. They had one room, I had the other. As I
said, it was in very poor condition. We boarded up one of the
windows. It had a hole in one of the floors. It was very dirty.
It was sinking into the permafrost.
Senator Murkowski. Had you ever lived in conditions like
this?
Ms. Davis. No.
Senator Murkowski. Did it cause you to wonder what you were
doing in Kotzebue?
Ms. Davis. Yes; it did. I grew up on an Indian reservation
in Washington. My parents teach. It was very similar. When I
called home for the first time I said it looks just like the
Indian housing projects. My parents said, well, the difference
is we don't live there anymore. We don't have to live there. We
can move outside of town and commute in. You can't do that.
Senator Murkowski. Now, Kotzebue's situation is different
than some of the others that we have heard in that you have to
find your own housing.
Ms. Davis. Yes.
Senator Murkowski. What happens if you are unable to find
housing? We know that at certain times housing is just not
available. What do other teachers do?
Ms. Davis. I had a teacher living on my floor for 1 month
while he looked for a place to live. Others will share housing
units temporarily. We have one teacher in Kotzebue who has been
there now 2 years. His family lives in Anchorage. He would like
them to come up, but he can't find a place to live for his
entire family. He is living with two other teachers.
Senator Murkowski. You have also indicated in your
testimony that your job allows you to travel throughout the
district and you mentioned there are no hotels and so you do
kind of camp out wherever you can in the communities, so you
probably have gotten quite a good firsthand view of what is
available at least in the region in which you're teaching, does
anybody have adequate housing up there in your opinion?
Ms. Davis. There is in Noorvik which just got a new school
building. The old elementary school is converted into housing.
The teachers there describe it as dormitory style. There is one
door and they go down the hallway of the old school and the old
classrooms are now--they are housing units.
Senator Murkowski. How many live there?
Ms. Davis. Eight apartments, some are couples. But it is
clean, new housing.
Senator Murkowski. And as you talk with new teachers,
teachers such as yourself 5 years ago just coming to the State,
what is their reaction? What is their response when they see
the conditions that they are expected to live in?
Ms. Davis. Of the approximately 60 teachers who were hired
the same year as me, there are 8 still in the district. The
majority of those left--out of the teachers in Kotzebue there
are two of us still in the district.
Senator Murkowski. Where have the others gone? Are they
still in the State?
Ms. Davis. Many have gone to other districts in the State
and to the road system. Most have left the State.
Senator Murkowski. And is there a universal reason that
they leave?
Ms. Davis. The district does a survey, an exit survey when
people leave and prior to coming down to this meeting I asked
for the surveys from the district and almost every single
person, housing was number one and number two on their list of
reasons. The isolation being one of the others.
Senator Murkowski. But do you feel as a, still a relatively
new teacher coming to Alaska, that if we could do a better job
of addressing the housing situation, we could do a better job
of retaining our teachers?
Ms. Davis. Absolutely. As I said, my number one reason when
I--when and if I choose to leave will be my housing situation
and cost.
Senator Murkowski. In the Kotzebue area have there been any
new housing units for school employees?
Ms. Davis. No; there are none.
Senator Murkowski. There are none. Okay, thank you. Mr.
Simon, in the Yukon-Koyokuk school district, the district
itself, the district owns the housing units, is that correct?
Mr. Simon. In 8 of the 9 villages.
Senator Murkowski. How many units does the district own?
Mr. Simon. Altogether the district owns 26 housing units
and leases 2 from community members.
Senator Murkowski. Okay. And do you have any villages in
the district that do not have housing for your school
employees? Situations similar to Kotzebue?
Mr. Simon. No.
Senator Murkowski. So in terms of what you would need, in
terms of actual units that you would need to accommodate your
teachers in your district, what do you anticipate you would
need?
Mr. Simon. At this point I believe we would need 17 new
houses.
Senator Murkowski. You would need 17 new houses. And do you
have any estimate as to what that would cost to construct those
units?
Mr. Simon. My best estimate would be around $2 million.
Senator Murkowski. $2 million. Now, we've heard both Ms.
Davis and Ms. Cole speak to the turnover rate, you've mentioned
it yourself, not only the turnover rate among the teachers, but
the turnover rate of the administrators, and that statistic is
particularly troubling, I think you mentioned 44 percent of
your principals moving on.
Mr. Simon. Yes.
Senator Murkowski. This is something that we don't talk
about quite as much as the teachers, but the administrators is
a huge, huge issue for us as well. And it seems to me that as a
district you're really stuck with a dilemma. You would either
put some of your education dollars into your housing so that
you can keep your teachers, or you put the education money
where we all think the education money should be and that's
within the classroom. And you are really stuck with a very,
very difficult choice. Because if you can't keep your teachers,
you can't educate your kids. How do you wrestle with this? This
is a terrible problem to be under.
Mr. Simon. It's something that we have to deal with, we're
going to budget again for next year and we have to figure out
how much we're going to put into teacher housing and we are in
the--you know, since there's so few teachers going to the
Alaska Job Fair now-a-days, we have to be able to come to the
table, to the teachers and say this is what we offer in terms
of housing, and we know that they're going to be asking 54
other school districts in the State or this and that 30 about,
what kind of housing do you provide? What is the rent? So we
try to provide a cheaper rent and better housing and say yes,
we have running water. That's just something----
Senator Murkowski. But you think it's that, that gives you
the competitive edge over other districts if you can say, I can
offer you better housing at a lower price that you can get the
teachers there?
Mr. Simon. Absolutely. Better housing, lower price, and
running water.
Senator Murkowski. And running water. Pretty much the
basics.
Mr. Simon. Yes.
Senator Murkowski. But what percentage, say for instance of
next year's budget would you say that you've got to spend on
teacher housing and as a consequence those moneys are not
available within the classroom itself?
Mr. Simon. Between 3 and 5 percent, $100,000 to $200,000.
Senator Murkowski. Okay. I appreciate your comments this
morning. Let's bring up the next group here.
I would like to welcome to the table, panel 2, Eric Madsen,
director of rural program development, school of education,
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Frank Hill, the co-director of
Alaska Rural Systemic Initiatives, a program within the Alaska
Federation of Natives and former superintendent of the Lake and
Peninsula Borough School district, and Carl Rose who is the
executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards
who is not with us this morning. His testimony has been
presented and I am presuming it is at the back of the table.
Nelson Angapak, who is the executive vice president of Alaska
Federation of Natives is also with us this morning. Mr.
Angapak, I understand that you will not be testifying, is that
correct?
Mr. Angapak. That's right.
Senator Murkowski. Okay.
Mr. Angapak. Mr. Hill will take care of that.
Senator Murkowski. He'll take care of it, all right.
We understand that Mr. Rose is out sick this morning, so we
will forgive him and accept his written comments. I should also
note that we have received written testimony from Roger
Sampson, the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Education
and Early Development, and David Bauer, former principal of
Savoonga School in the Bering Straits School District. I
understand that that testimony is also in the back if people
are interested. We will wait for the cell phone to go off and
then we'll begin.
[Prepared statements of Messrs. Rose, Samson, and Bauer
appear in appendix.]
Senator Murkowski. All right. Dr. Madsen, thank you for
joining us this morning.
Your testimony, please.
STATEMENT OF ERIC MADSEN, DIRECTOR OF RURAL PROGRAM
DEVELOPMENT, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA,
FAIRBANKS, AK
Mr. Madsen. Thank you. For the record, my name is Eric
Madsen. I am the director of Rural Program Development for the
School of Education, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. My
comments are based on periods of residency at St. Lawrence
Island, on the Kuskokwim, and Northwest Arctic, and various
professional travel working with students going back to 1977.
Senator Murkowski, thank you for the opportunity to comment on
S. 1905, the Rural Teacher Housing Act of 2003. These comments
are predicated on the assumption that while the immediate issue
before us is habitable living quarters for teachers,
administrators, and other school staff, our larger goal is
increasing the academic achievement of the students in the
eligible communities. Certainly any measure that enhances rural
Alaska school districts' ability to recruit and retain skilled
teachers would be helpful toward that larger goal. However, I
believe that improving teacher housing would be most
constructive if it were placed in the context of a broader
initiative. When Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867,
schooling for Alaska Native students fell under the prevailing
assimilationist paradigm which was exemplified in the 1819
Civilization Fund Act, which had been established specifically
for the purpose of ``civilizing'' Native American students in
the Lower 48. That paradigm was extended to Alaska through
practices such as delegating responsibility for schools in
Native communities to missionary societies, and through
policies such as the Nelson Act of 1905, which differentiated
between students of mixed blood leading ``civilized'' lives and
white students, on one hand, and students of mixed blood not
leading ``civilized'' lives and Native students, on the other.
In 30 years working with rural communities, I have rarely heard
anyone suggest that teachers from outside those communities are
not necessary and helpful components of strong, well-rounded
academic programs. But if our goal is only to make teachers
from outside rural communities somewhat more physically
comfortable so that we can extend their tenure by a couple of
years, I believe we run the risk of being perceived as doing
little more than perpetuating the assimilationist paradigm to
yet another generation of rural students, and I know that is
not the intent of this bill at all. In contrast, linking such
an initiative to the larger issues would support rural
communities' efforts to develop the kinds of schools that
reflect their values and their aspirations. I think there are
several ways to approach this task. First, while providing
funds and a funding mechanism to improve housing for rural
teachers would be a constructive step, it should be implemented
within a context of improving housing and public facilities in
rural communities, in general, to the extent those communities
so desire. Absent this broader context, long-term residents of
rural communities might reasonably ask why teacher housing
should be any better, or any more of a priority, than housing
for those who live there full-time. Second, in order to improve
the overall quality of students' school experiences and their
academic achievement, I would suggest directing a portion of
the available funds toward improving teacher housing, to help
respond to immediate needs, and a larger portion toward
assisting long-term residents to become fully certified, highly
qualified teachers in their home communities which would help
to address the larger goal. Long-term residents have deep
understanding of their communities, their schools, and their
students, and many of them have years of experience in teaching
and teaching assistance roles. Not incidentally, residents of
rural communities also have their own housing. As my colleague
Dean Norris-Tull observed in a conversation about this topic
last week, supporting rural residents' aspirations to become
educators in their home communities simultaneously addresses,
in a very real way, both the housing issues and the larger
successful school experience issues. There are several forms
that such assistance might take. The most direct approach would
be to make academic scholarships available directly to long-
term residents, contingent only upon satisfactory progress
through a teacher preparation program. A second, and perhaps
companion, form of support would be to fund release-time from
work so that students who already serve in teaching assistance
roles could remain close to their classrooms while completing
their preparation programs. Third, I would urge you to pursue
the improvement of teacher housing, but to consider doing so
within the context of improving rural housing, in general. The
funding mechanisms to support teachers in training and rural
housing improvement are already contemplated in S. 1905: that
is, tribally designated entities and village corporations for
the scholarships and housing initiatives, and school districts
for release time funding. S. 1905's intent to provide habitable
living quarters for rural teachers is a constructive step.
Teachers play critical roles in the lives of students, and
teachers who stay in rural communities long enough to become
participants in community life and to better understand and
appreciate their students are much more likely to fulfill their
roles effectively. They deserve, and doubtless would
appreciate, safe, comfortable, functional housing. That said,
long-term residents of rural communities also deserve and would
appreciate safe, comfortable, functional housing. Perhaps more
to the point, rural students deserve teachers who have deep
understanding of, and long-term commitment to their
communities. Certainly this includes the large number of
teachers who grew up and trained elsewhere, but have found
rural communities to be personally satisfying and
professionally rewarding places to live, to work, and to raise
their families as we've heard today. There are many of them,
and their personal contributions to rural villages and their
professional contributions to rural schools are significant and
certainly must be appreciated. Nevertheless, the roughly 100-
year history of public schooling in Alaska suggests that it is
most frequently the residents of rural communities who provide
both the continuity in those schools, and also the orientation
and the nurturing that help new teachers from outside become
long-term, contributing participants in those settings. I
encourage you, Senator Murkowski, to pursue the initiative in
S. 1905, but to consider doing so within the context of
improving housing for all of the residents of the eligible
communities and assisting long-term residents to assume
professional roles as teachers and administrators in their home
communities and regions. Thank you for the opportunity to offer
these comments this morning.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Madsen appears in appendix.]
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Dr. Madsen.
Mr. Hill, good morning.
STATEMENT OF FRANK HILL, CO-DIRECTOR OF ALASKA RURAL SYSTEMIC
INITIATIVES, A PROGRAM WITHIN THE ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES,
AND FORMER SUPERINTENDENT OF THE LAKE AND PENINSULA BOROUGH
SCHOOL DISTRICT, ANCHORAGE, AK, ACCOMPANIED BY NELSON ANGAPAK,
Sr., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES
Mr. Hill. Good morning, Senator Murkowski. For the record,
my name is Frank Hill, I'm co-director, Alaska Rural Systemic
Initiative; [AKRSI] a project sponsored by Alaska Federation of
Natives [AFN] for the past 8 years or 9 years, and I've been
co-director for the past 5 years. As you know, AFN is a
Statewide Native organization formed in 1966 to represent
Alaska's 100,000+ Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts on concerns and
issues which affect the rights and property interests of the
Alaska Natives on a statewide basis. I might include that there
is 34,100 Alaska Natives students in that number. On behalf of
AFN, it's Board of Directors and membership, thank you for
inviting us to comment on S. 1905, the Rural Teacher Housing
Act of 2003. We applaud the efforts of the Honorable Lisa
Murkowski in resolving the housing conditions for the teachers
who teach in rural Alaska. My previous experience in Alaska
education totals 29 years, including classroom math and science
teacher, education program administrator, and 11 years as
superintendent. With the exception of 3 years in Anchorage
Schools, all of my educational experiences were in rural
Alaska. I sort of went against the norm, I went from urban to
rural and stayed there, where my home was. Thank you for
introducing S. 1905. AFN supports this bill for a number of
reasons, including but not limited to addressing the housing
needs of teachers in rural Alaska. This bill, if Congress would
pass it will solve one of the true human needs that exist in
the education process as it addresses rural Alaska--the housing
needs of the teachers and the educators in rural Alaska. In
1999, Julie Kitka, president of AFN, submitted a report to
Congress entitled AFN Implementation Study. This is a 23-page
document on proposals to the U.S. Congress to implement
recommendations of the Alaska Natives Commission pursuant to
Public Law 104-270. One of the proposals included that study
addresses issues supporting Alaska Native education. For
example, one of the findings was the critical need to create
and implement programs designed to improve the quality of
education for young Alaska Natives. The Commission found that
innovative education programs were needed to help reverse the
deterioration of socioeconomic conditions and the poor
educational performance of many Alaska Native children, the
majority of whom attend schools in small and remote traditional
villages. The Commission also urged that parents and community
leaders become compelling voices in directing Alaska's formal
education system; that the education system employ teachers and
administrators knowledgeable about Native cultures and
respectful of them; and that Alaska Natives receive an
integrated education--one that provides them not only with the
skills to succeed in life, but also the understanding necessary
to carry on their cultures' community values. We raise these
points to demonstrate that it is critical to attract teachers
and educators with qualifications to teach in rural Alaska; and
it is critical to see that they have incentives to remain in
rural Alaska. One of those incentives would be quality housing
as intended by S. 1905 if it is enacted into law. The retention
of qualified teachers and educators in rural Alaska has a
definite potential to improve the quality of education received
by the students attending the schools in rural Alaska
districts. I believe that improved education by the students
attending these rural school districts will improve if we end
up with higher quality through this process. The passage of
this bill would also have some other benefits as well,
employment opportunities being one of them. Unemployment in
rural Alaska ranges on the average, 60 to 80 percent in the
most villages. The passage of S. 1905 will create employment
opportunities, at least during the construction of the housing
units in the villages where it is really needed. Local hire,
senate bill 1905 should mandate local hire for qualified
people, both Alaska Native and non-Native, living in the
villages where the construction of the housing units will take
place. In this instance, local would mean people living in the
communities where the teacher housing construction would occur.
It would also improve in a small way, improvement of local
economies. Local hire will have a short term improvement of
local economies where it is really needed. While these
improvements are short-term, they will be beneficial to those
communities. In terms of ownership of housing and land, AFN
strongly recommends that the local village entities, including
the local village corporation and/or local tribal entity, be
given the first right of refusal on the ownership of the
housing units in the villages. The housing units in the
villages would be leased to the school district under which the
local school operates. This will ensure that the landlords of
the housing units are local rather than some distant owner. In
terms of program policies, on page 9 of the bill, beginning on
line 19, S. 1905 states that the Alaska Housing Finance
Corporation, after consulting with eligible school districts,
shall establish policies governing the administration of grant
and loan funds made available under this act. AFN strongly
recommends the inclusion and the participation of local
entities where the eligible district is located. One of the
critical elements of the success of the housing units
envisioned pursuant to S. 1905 is the ``local ownership'' in
terms of policy of these units. Authorization of
appropriations: during a recent discussion with a knowledgeable
school administrator, it was estimated that at least $100
million would be needed annually to address the teacher housing
needs in rural Alaska.
AFN recommends that Congress considers actual
appropriations of at least $100 millions annually to implement
the intent of this bill through the life of this authorization.
With public schooling being in Alaska for over 100 years, there
are many, many challenges facing educators in trying to deliver
a quality program for Alaska's rural schools and native
students that primarily live there. Among them, of course, is
the high level of teacher turnover, not just from year to year,
but, as pointed out earlier today by Mr. Simon, that it's
sometimes within the school year. This disruption of the
instructional process has been shown to be associated with
negative effects on student achievement--academic achievement
and performance. This high level of teacher turnover is
primarily a rural school problem. Alaska's largest urban
districts have historic annual turnover rates between 6 and 14
percent comparable to--and that's comparable to the national
average. All Alaska school districts with turnover rates over
30 percent or more are rural districts far from the main road
system. A study entitled ``Retaining Quality Teachers for
Alaska'', by William McDermitt, UAA/ISER, 2000, demonstrated
that a primary reason for teacher turnover is the lack of
adequate or quality housing for teachers. Schools are required
to use precious instructional funding to recruit and hire
teachers year after year. This is an issue only rural schools
face.
In order to attract and retain quality teachers for rural
schools, many rural school districts provide housing for their
teachers. 11 rural school districts subsidize the cost of
housing if district housing is not available as you have heard
from the two educators earlier. The School Board Association
does a survey every year and that's where that documentation
comes from. Recently, a rural school Superintendent told me
that 8 cents of every school district dollar budgeted was to
provide and maintain teacher housing. Yet again, this is an
expense only Alaska's rural schools must deal with.
While a District Superintendent, I interviewed hundreds of
prospective teachers in my 11 years as superintendent and
previously as one of the key recruiters for teachers in rural
schools. I interviewed lots and lots of teachers. One of the
first questions they asked, as was pointed out, is what kind of
housing will I have before they asked about salary, before they
asked about how far is it to Anchorage, they always asked about
housing and then does it actually have a flush toilet and a
light switch that will turn the lights on?
At Lake and Pen I used to think that we were attractive as
a rural district because we had such a great program, but I
think it also was somewhat a result of our efforts to maintain
and keep real good housing for our teachers, knowing that that
was a critical element in their retention. The funding proposed
by S. 1905 will be a welcome relief for rural schools. If
successful, the funding could effectively increase the funds
spent on instruction, and could lead to improvement in
instruction, and better student achievement. We could be--with
this funding we could begin to reduce the high teacher turnover
rate in rural Alaska schools, thereby decreasing the costs of
annually recruiting new teachers.
Again, these funds that we saved could be used in the
instructional program. We congratulate you, Senator Murkowski
and the entire Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for
developing and sponsoring this bill. By removing the issue of
teacher housing for rural Alaska's schools as an issue that
negatively impacts student achievement, schools would be able
to do a better job of providing a quality education. Thank you
for this opportunity to testify.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Hill appears in appendix.]
Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Thank you, both. Let's see--
let's go to you, Dr. Madsen. I appreciate the attention you've
given to not just the rural teacher housing. Obviously, the
focus of this hearing and my legislation is on that one
component as we look at how we deliver the best education
possible to our kids in our rural areas and recognize without
the teachers there to deliver the education, it's very
difficult to do a good job. And if it's the housing issue that
is the big bone of contention, as it certainly appears from
what we've heard this morning, how can we deal with it. But I
appreciate your concern that we are just looking at one
component of the problem out in rural Alaska.
I have been very involved with housing legislation in the
Senate and have signed on and helped move a couple housing
initiatives just this past year that will help with low income
loans to individuals, first time buyers. We had the dream home
initiative was one of them. We were also involved with the
latest one that just moved through which was the home program
funds, disbursed to State and local governments to assist with
expansion of housing for low income families, so there is a
recognition that we need to do more, and I appreciate your
highlighting that in your testimony, and I want you to know
that I agree with you. We've got a long way to go on these
issues.
As I have gone out to many of the communities, we're
looking at the new clinics that are being built in so many of
our rural villages through the AME assistance of the Denali
Commission, but we recognize that in order to get the health
professionals that we need, they also need adequate housing.
And your point that we want to encourage those people who have
lived in these communities that have been born and raised
there, we want to encourage them to stay, and how can we assist
them with their housing needs as well? It is a huge issue for
us to tackle in rural Alaska. And I think those of us that have
been out there, Mr. Hill you've been teaching out there for 29
years in various parts of rural Alaska, we recognize that this
is not just something that is directed to teachers. So we
have--we've got a long ways to go. I think you and I are in
agreement on what it is that we have to do. I guess my
legislation is one small step in one area. But, again, I do
appreciate you bringing those to my attention.
You indicate support in your testimony, maybe not support,
but you suggested that as we try to provide incentives for
those that have been in the communities for long periods of
time, that perhaps some form of scholarship assistance might be
something to pursue. This is far afield of our legislation
today, but it's something that I know when we're talking about
student loan forgivenesses for our teachers and our nurses in
order to encourage them to remain in our communities, that's
certainly one area that we've looked, but do you think that
this scholarship assistance might be one way that we can
address the problems that you've pointed out?
Mr. Madsen. Yes; very definitely. Context matters so that
we as policymakers and school people need to pay attention to
the context in which our efforts work. And this is actually a
constructive step, and I hope I was clear about that.
Senator Murkowski. Yeah.
Mr. Madsen. And I think that you summarized well the
surrounding issues, and I would certainly be supportive of any
efforts to try to address the larger issues of housing for the
communities in general, and for the long-term interests of
trying to assist people in those communities to become
professionals, both health care professionals, and education
professionals. I think that's where the long-term future looks
brightest.
Senator Murkowski. I agree. I appreciate you bringing them
up. I think your points are extremely well taken.
Mr. Hill, I want to talk to you a little bit about your
experience 29 years in various schools in various communities.
You say 11 years as a superintendent, 29 years in the classroom
in various communities.
Mr. Hill. I'm sorry, maybe I didn't word that right. My 11
years was included in the 29.
Senator Murkowski. Okay.
Mr. Hill. Okay.
Senator Murkowski. Well, you still spent along time out in
various rural communities. You heard the testimony of the two
teachers that we had here, Mr. Simon is a superintendent, in
your experience with teacher housing over the years in parts of
rural Alaska that you resided in, is your story very similar to
what we heard from the teachers and superintendent?
Mr. Hill. Sure. Being--I think the anxiety the teachers
have and just the worry alone about what am I going home to
after the classroom is certainly distracting to the quality of
education. I don't know how you could be a human being without
that. My experience was primarily on the Alaska peninsula and
the Bristol Bay region. And I've visited lots and lots of
teacher housing units.
There was some advantage in being very close to the water-
borne transportation system where the costs probably were a
little bit less to deliver construction materials, but there
are still places where in conditions of low water you had to
helicopter and fly fuel into communities to just keep the
schools and the housing units warm. That's for everyone in that
community. So those conditions do exist and I wouldn't say that
any of them, they were probably being polite by not--maybe it
sounded exaggerating at some point, but it's certainly not in
my experience.
Senator Murkowski. You have indicated, and I appreciate the
way that you've laid it out in your testimony, you've indicated
that our rural schools here in Alaska face different
challenges, different costs than anything that we might
experience here in the urban part of the state, or similar
situations in the Lower 48, that our rural schools have
expenses that nobody else has, that you've got to incorporate
those into your budget. You've indicated, again, when we talk
about it, a teacher and administrative turnover rate of 30
percent a year and administrator turnover rate of 44 percent a
year, that you as a district then have to spend additional time
and money in recruiting teachers that we might not experience
here in Anchorage, which is something again that I don't think
we stop to think about how much time, energy, and money you
spend in that recruitment process.
Mr. Hill. That's true. As an example, last year I checked
with the Anchorage School District and they had a waiting list
of 600 teachers wanting a job here.
Senator Murkowski. And what was your situation out in Lake
Pen district?
Mr. Hill. We couldn't--I don't think we would have had
anywhere near 800. We--we'd have been surprised if we had two
or three looking to work with us, and they may have been
transfers from neighboring districts, but we've never had a--I
don't recall in all the years that I've worked in rural
districts that someone's going to put me on your list for next
year. So I think there are many advantages to urban districts
over rural in this case.
Senator Murkowski. Well, you've got the extra time and
energy, money that needs to go into the recruitment, then
you're looking at spending instructional dollars in order to
provide some form of housing, whether it's housing subsidy or
whether it is--you've got to do something to entice these
teachers to come to your district. As Superintendent Simon
mentioned, there a competition amongst the districts to attract
the teachers, and it sounds, from his testimony anyway, that
decent housing with a flush toilet is going to be one of those
criteria that will cause the teacher to go with that district
as opposed to this district. So again, as a rural area you have
a cost that an urban area simply would not have to deal with.
Mr. Hill. Exactly.
Senator Murkowski. Now, in the Lake Pen district, did the
district provide housing or were the teachers and the staff on
their own?
Mr. Hill. In one or two teacher sites primarily the
teachers were required to live in district-provided housing.
They--the local administrator--they were--it was not free of
charge. They were paying a rent and a schedule was worked out
with the local bargaining unit to do that. However, it was
subsidized. We were lucky enough to become a borough--actually
that was my first job as superintendent was to help REA become
a borough, and in that process we transferred the ownership of
the housing unit to the borough.
That helped us get away from this one requirement from the
State where we had to spend 70 percent of the State funds on
instruction. There's a 70/30 rule. You cannot spend more than
30 percent of your State dollars on other than instruction.
Your bill would certainly give the opportunity to take that
piece of that budget off that 70--the wrong side of 70/30 and
help those districts which I think--I don't recall, but there's
at least 1 dozen every year and they're all rural, primarily,
who have to get a waiver from the Department of Education to
address this issue.
Senator Murkowski. And if--if in fact--let's assume that
this legislation doesn't move forward just for conversation
sake here, but if you've got a situation where you've got an
essentially the State mandate that says, you know, you've got
this cap here and it has to go for instructional costs, and the
districts are limited in their ability to do anything with
housing, not able to get the teachers or not able to keep the
teachers more likely, we've got this kind of a downward spiral
in terms of the quality of education that we can deliver out
there.
I don't mean to be overly pessimistic, but if we can't--if
we can't provide some kind of housing out there that has
minimal standards, how do you keep your teachers? You tell me a
little bit about how you did this recruitment process because
you indicated that you were involved with that for some time.
How much does that factor into the prospective teacher's
decision?
Mr. Hill. A lot. In fact, we found it wise after a couple
of years instead of just telling them about it, we actually
made some video and showed pictures of the housing units that
were available in the community so that people could see oh,
there's a bed, there's a toilet that flushes, that kind of
thing. So in order--and not to say that we would mislead
teachers, but I could see that after a period of time if you'd
been working in situations where housing was a big problem, you
would want to see actual proof.
Mind you, most of the recruiting is taking place right here
in Anchorage. And the first time they see any of the places
they're going to live is when they first show up on the first
day of the job. I don't believe any rural districts can afford
to fly the people out to get a look at their housing units
prior to making the decision to go there. So there's lots of
issues related to that, that are that critical. I've had--we've
made offers to teachers, you know, saying you're the person we
want for this instructional team in Chignik Lagoon and they
walk around that contract offer shopping housing next because
they already have a contract. I don't blame them. I think that
that's realistic.
I recall in one community mentoring a very bright young
couple in a two-teacher school and there was a very, very small
apartment, and I didn't realize that they--they never let us
know--that they left their two children behind, and they--in
the beginning of the school year in the housing that they were
in that we provided was very, very small. They were looking for
ways at Christmas to bring their family up and--because it just
didn't make sense for them to be away from their two children
for the period of time they were going to be in Alaska. I think
they were from Washington state somewhere.
Senator Murkowski. Do you recall how old their children
were?
Mr. Hill. Pre-teen.
Senator Murkowski. Pre-teen.
Mr. Hill. Yes; Because there was no high school in that
community; they were wondering basically if they could teach
their own kids. That was the first question they asked. So they
thought it would be better for them to be in the school they
were in. But anyway, they negotiated with me to move out of the
small apartment that we had to one where a local person invited
them to live because the community really valued those teachers
and wanted them to stay, even after 6 months. This was a place
where they had teachers sometimes leave. We had two changeovers
in that same village in 1 year previously. So it was really a
revelation to us to have a community member offer their house
and it was a nice house for them to even stay. So housing was a
big issue just from the issue of having a real family.
For something else that hasn't been said here, but
typically district housing is not occupied during the summer,
and there's probably good reason for some, if you do any
maintenance, that's the time to do it. There's an opportunity
to do that. But I recall how shocking it was to my school board
once when we had three different families who had three or four
children each who actually asked to stay in teacher housing
year-round. We didn't even have a policy for that. All of our
rental units for agreement were for 10 months and 9 months.
So to have something where they felt really comfortable,
and this is our home and we don't want to leave, we'd have to
go pay rent somewhere else, so they were already secured in
their housing. They didn't want somebody else to get it so they
stayed in it year-round, basically is what it boiled down to,
they didn't want somebody to come in and find somebody else
living in the house that they had, so they asked to stay year-
round.
Senator Murkowski. Is it fair to suggest then that because
housing is such an issue and such an unknown in certain areas,
to listen to Ms. Davis's testimony about having to essentially
make arrangements with two strangers, two males unknown she was
going to share a house with for the next year, is it fair to
say that we're not seeing families come up to teach because of
the shortage? You might be able to find one room, but to find a
place for you and your family.
I know when I met the principal at Savoonga, the one that
was living in the broom closet, his wife refused to move to
Savoonga because there was no place for her, and she wasn't
about to stay at the school. Is this what we're seeing? We're
able to attract the young people fresh out of school who are
willing to come to Alaska for a bit of an adventure and can
deal with less than optimal housing, but we're not able to
attract the older, more established teacher who might have a
family?
Mr. Hill. That's certainly true. There are exceptions, of
course. People who find a situation where adequate housing is--
to bring their families, sometimes they won't learn that until
they've been there 1 or 2 years and can figure out the
community and which community they'd like to be in and which--
you know, where their family would be comfortable. So I would
say that it's probably after--at least after the first year
before they make that determination, but typically districts
can't, as hard as it is to develop housing just for the
classroom teachers, to provide housing for families included
would be even more expensive. So that's--maybe it's really a
function of cost.
Senator Murkowski. This goes back to Dr. Madsen's concern
that what we want to do, we don't want teachers to just kind of
swing by, teach for a couple of years and then move on out, we
don't want to be the training ground for these teachers, we
want them to bring their families here. We want them to raise
their families here and be part of this community. And if you
don't have the facilities for them to feel that they are part
of that community or those that have been around for a long
time, we want to figure out the way to keep them here along
with their families.
Mr. Hill. Along with that, I'd like to support his concept
of growing our own. I think that's very important. I know
there's at least three initiatives ongoing now to do that, but
there's only less than 5 percent per teaching staff, Alaska
Native or rural or residents who live in rural Alaska are
teachers. That number has not changed in 30 years. If you are
going to get up to the percentage of Alaska Native students in
the State which is just under 24 percent, we have a long ways
to go, there's probably 1,500 to 1,800 teachers that have to be
grown, and that would certainly to go a long ways toward
solving the turnover, provided they all meet the qualifications
that we're looking for.
Senator Murkowski. Is there any data--recent data--that we
collect on the status of teacher housing across the State? I'm
sure within the respective districts there is, but do we have a
compilation at the State level?
Mr. Hill. I thought such existed. But just last week I
checked with the Department of Education and the School Board
Association and their annual housing--the teachers salary and
benefits surgery, and the only thing that they have is what
districts subsidize housing. That was again, I pointed out 11
districts subside housing somewhere. I in fact spoke with
someone at the Denali Commission who was dealing with the
funding proposal that you had just indicated earlier about
working with teacher housing issues and she assumed the same
thing and found that the first their they have to do is fund a
study to find out the condition of teacher housing around the
state. So that's probably a good first step is to find where
the needs are greatest. I really think it ought to be also a
priority for housing and development authority, first go to
those districts who have the greatest need, not just in terms
of lack of housing, but also looking at the academic
performance of kids to tie those two things together.
Senator Murkowski. But so far as you're aware, we don't
have that data yet?
Mr. Hill. No.
Senator Murkowski. So we're not in a position to do any
prioritization?
Mr. Hill. Not that I'm aware of.
Senator Murkowski. I think we are just now starting to
really shine the spotlight on this issue and as we look to how
our children are doing from district to district and
recognizing we've got a lot of work to do out in the rural
areas, we look at it and say what is the issue here, what is
the problem? When you come down to the statistics that reveal
in district after district these incredibly high teacher
turnover rates, you've got to look further and see what
contributing factors are there.
Mr. Hill. Excuse me, I recall one other issue that many
teachers told me they were leaving because they wanted to move
to a place where they could actually invest in and start
building a home of their own. In most cases in rural Alaska
there's not a chance to spend that very high rent money on
developing the ownership of your own home. So, typically young
people, beginning professionals, are starting to look at that
as a way to develop a life and to have the opportunity to start
investing in their own home rather than paying rent. Which is
the case, I'm sure, of a lot of long-term Anchorage teachers
owning their own home and living in their own homes. There's--
that's not the case in many rural districts at all. I'd be
surprised if many owned their own homes at all unless they
bought a piece of land way out somewhere.
Senator Murkowski. And then you throw in the concerns that
we heard earlier just in terms of the cost of building, the
very high cost of transportation, equipment, it's almost
prohibitive in certain areas. And if you don't know that you're
going to be there beyond a year, it's pretty tough to make that
commitment.
Mr. Hill. Exactly.
Senator Murkowski. What other, in terms of ways that rural
schools or districts have to provide for adequate teacher
housing--we have--we've talked about the districts basically
making that budgetary decision that they may have to use
instructional dollars to do this, but what other means at the
state level are available for districts or for----
Mr. Hill. Not many except in the case where you might have
a construction project, as was indicated earlier, and there's
an opportunity to spend some of your construction moneys, not
necessarily directly on teacher housing but to take that
opportunity of transporting materials along with the school
construction materials to do that. There's some limited
opportunity that way. That's only in cases of very high
priority capital projects that State funds on an annual basis.
It's highly competitive. I sat on that State committee that set
their priorities for, I think it was 6 years, and in those 6
years I don't recall any urban district ever having the highest
priority in terms of life, health, and safety, but teacher
housing is not on that list.
Senator Murkowski. Right.
Mr. Hill. You cannot spend money on teacher housing
without--with State dollars. So, it's a very limited
opportunity except in some cases I'm sure there's some local
entrepreneurial people who have their own land who could
develop and see an opportunity to rent to teachers on an annual
basis, but that's very----
Senator Murkowski. Well, gentlemen, I appreciate your
testimony this morning. As I've indicated. Mr. Rose's testimony
is on the back table as well as the additional submitted
testimony that we have received from the Commissioner of the
Department of Education and the former principal of the
Savoonga School. I would again invite any of you who are
interested to submit additional testimony. The record will
remain open for 2 weeks.
The committee aide for the Committee on Indian Affairs will
make sure that you get the information on where to send the
testimony, but you can always send it to my office in
Washington DC and we will make sure that it gets filed with the
committee. But I want to thank those that provided the
testimony this morning, those that came to listen from the
various perspectives. I see some folks with AHFC, with HUD,
people that are just very interested in seeing how we can make
a difference.
I think there's a few very key points that we have learned
from all of our witnesses this morning, and that is that
teacher housing is a critical component in recruiting and
retaining quality teachers in Alaska. And if we don't have the
teachers in our rural communities, we cannot expect good
performance for our students. This is something that is
imperative that we deal with if we want to make sure that our
kids in the rural parts of the state get the best possible
education, and we certainly owe it to them to give them that.
We want to work toward that end.
When we look at those expenses, those costs that these
rural schools and school districts assume, that no other
schools or school districts really have to take on in terms of
using your instructional money for teacher housing in order to
keep your teachers there, that's a balancing act, that's a
choice that we really don't want to put our schools and our
districts in. We want to know that the money is getting into
the classrooms so that we're really helping those kids.
So we've got a big project ahead of us. We will be
hopefully moving this legislation through the process on the
Senate side and working on various other initiatives to see
what we can do to make housing more available in all parts of
rural Alaska. We're starting with the teachers, but that
doesn't mean that we don't also focus on the other areas of
need throughout the state when it comes to housing. So, I
appreciate the time from all of you this morning. Thank you,
and good day. With that we are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12 noon, the committee was adjourned, to
reconvene at the call of the Chair.]
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A P P E N D I X
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Additional Material Submitted for the Record
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Prepared Statement of Dave Bauer, Principal of the Savoonga School,
Bering Strait School District
While principal at Savoonga, I lived at the school in a closet,
with a chair and table, to be able to provide enough beds and rooms for
my teaching staff. The next year, I had to have two male teachers share
a house where one of them had to walk through the other's bedroom to
use the bathroom.
This year I have better housing, however, I still had to replace a
heating unit and a stove to make it adequate. I will be losing at least
two teachers at the end of the year because of inadequate housing.
______
Prepared Statement of Joe Cladouhos President/CEO Norton Sound Health
Corporation
S. 1905 ``To provide habitable living quarters for teachers,
administrators, Other school staff, and their households in rural areas
of Alaska located in or near Alaska Native Villages.''
On behalf of the Norton Sound Health Corporation Board of Directors
and staff, I support the intent of S. 1905 and would appreciate the
sponsor's consideration to amend the bill to include staff housing for
physician assistants based in Alaska Native communities and housing for
itinerants that frequently travel to provide specialized health care to
patients in rural Alaskan communities.
A non-profit consortium of 20 tribes, NSHC was one of the first
Native health organizations in the country to assume complete
responsibility for all health services in the region. NSHC was founded
in 1970. The board of directors is comprised of consumers chosen by the
20 tribal governments in the region.
NSHC operates Norton Sound Regional Hospital in Nome, the hub city
of the region with a population of 3,448 residents. NSHC also operates
health clinics in 15 Native Alaskan villages scattered on the coast and
island of the Bering Sea, all covering the size of State of Ohio. Of
the 15 villages, all have mid-level practitioners [Physician Assistants
or Nurse Practitioners] assigned for at least part-time coverage. Seven
villages are designated as the primary residence of Mid-level
Practitioners [MLPs]. Lack of available housing is evident in all 15
villages.
Itinerant clinicians also provide specialized health care services
such as eye care, dental, WIC, audiology, Maternal and Children's
Health Care, and many other medically related services. These health
care workers usually stay in the health clinic while in the villages.
This arrangement causes some crowding in the facility, creates
confusion during emergencies, diminishes the comfort and privacy of
travelers and overloads busy clinics.
A solution to this problem like the teaching housing situation
would be to build new staff and itinerant structured with a separate
area for itinerants, ideally a two-bedroom with an attached small
apartment.
Due to lack of adequate housing for mid-levels and itinerant health
care providers, patients in the surrounding villages do not receive the
quality care they need and deserve. Mid-levels want to live in a
village to provide care but they do not have the opportunity due to
lack of housing. Itinerants would visit more villages and stay longer
in each village, but are forced to cut their visits short due lack of
housing.
NSHC is committed to ensure each patient in our region receive the
best health care they deserve no matter where they live, but we are
seriously constrained by the housing crisis and cannot place mid-levels
in villages without a suitable place to live. Please consider amending
S. 1905 to include the provision of habitable living quarters for mid-
levels and itinerant health care professionals in Alaska Native
communities.
______
Prepared Statement of Robert J. Clark, President/CEO, Bristol Bay Area
Health Corporation, Executive Committee, Alaska Native Health Board,
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
On behalf of the 34 tribes that form the Bristol Bay Area Health
Corporation, we support your bill ``to provide hospitable living
quarters, administrators, other school staff, and their households in
rural areas of Alaska located in or near Alaska Native Villages''.
We ask for an amendment to ``include staff housing for Mid-Level
Practioners [Physician Assistants and Nurse Practioners] based in
Alaska Native Communities and housing for itinerants that frequently
travel to provide specialized health care to patients in rural Alaskan
communities''.
The testimony of Mr. Joe Cladouhos, President/CEO of the Norton
Sound Health Corporation on S. 1905 while speaking for his 20 tribes in
North West Alaska and their needs, could just as easily be the
testimony of all our 12 regions that have similar needs.
Our Alaska health care system relies on Sub Regional Clinics,
whatever they be HRSA, 330 Clinics, Frontier Clinics, or other
similarly funded clinics, however with the national Mid Level shortage
of positions, we are hampered by adequate reasonable cost housing for
these positions in our villages leaving care to less then adequate
itinerant coverage.
Thank you for considering this need and sharing this with our
Congressional Delegation.
______
Prepared Statement of Peggy A. Cole, Teacher, Lower Yukon School
District
Good morning, my name is Peggy Cole and I am a teacher in the Lower
Yukon School District [LYSD], located in western Alaska. LYSD consists
of 11 sites spread along the Yukon River and the Bering seacoast
covering approximately 22,000 square miles. There are about 2,000
students, 99 percent of which are Yupik Eskimo. I have taught in LYSD
for 12 years and have lived in teacher housing during that time. My
family and I have lived in 3 villages in our school district. At each
site, we have lived in BIA housing units, which are 50 or more years
old. These houses had many problems and were in need of costly repairs.
There are virtually no houses available to rent in the villages,
and what is available, would be considered substandard by most
teachers. Therefore, the school district rents the houses to the
teachers, who are required to live in District housing as part of their
contract. The school district picks up the cost of water, sewer,
electricity, and maintenance. According to the District, the high cost
of these utilities leaves little revenue for maintenance on the
housing.
The cost of living in rural Alaska is very high compared to
Anchorage. Here is a simple example, milk costs about $3.50 in
Anchorage, it costs $8.98 in Emmonak and it is not even available in
many villages. Supplies of all types must be flown into the village
during the year, or barged in during the summer months. There are no
roads connecting western Alaska to a hub where supplies can be
purchased and delivered in a cheaper manner.
While working in this school district, I have had the opportunity
to visit many of the 104 teacher housing units throughout the district.
Most of them were in fair to poor condition. only 8 new, teacher
housing units have been constructed in the past 12 years in our
district. During the summer of 1996, as a cost saving measure, the
District purchased 3 mobile homes and barged them to Hooper Bay to act
as teacher housing. That did not work at all. They were cold and
drafty; the walls cracked and there were problems with the water/sewer
lines.
The school district wants to keep the rent at a reasonable price in
order to attract and retain quality teachers to provide stability in
the classrooms, but building new houses in rural Alaska is extremely
costly. As a ``Band-Aid'' to the problem, LYSD spent over $1 million
from their CIP fund to upgrade the existing housing throughout the
District last summer. These upgrades have helped to make the houses
look more pleasing to the eye, but have not solved the problems with
structural, electrical, water/sewer issues or age of the units.
At some sites, single teachers are required to live together
because of the scarcity of adequate housing units. This does not
promote stability of teaching staffs at some schools, because many
teachers do not want to live with a total stranger.
With the added stress to the budget of the new NCLB law, the
increase to PERS/TRS and the increasing cost of insurance, there is no
money available in our district to do any more upgrades on teacher
housing.
S. 1905, Rural Teacher Housing Act of 2003, which Senator Murkowski
is sponsoring, would make moneys available to these rural districts,
like LYSD. This money would allow our district to build new teacher
housing units, which would help to entice teachers to come to rural
Alaska to work. The passage of this bill would also allow the district
to get the needed money to bring all of our housing units up to the
rigid standards of today's world. I strongly encourage you to support
Senator Murkowski in her efforts to get S. 1905 passed.
______
Prepared Statement of Jennifer Davis, Technology Trainer, Northwest
Arctic Borough School District
I have lived in Kotzebue, AK for the past 5 years and work as an
itinerant technology trainer in the 11 villages of Northwest Arctic.
There is no school district provided housing in Kotzebue. We must
locate our own housing in the community and then pay extremely high
costs for what many consider to be substandard conditions. I live in a
250 square foot apartment that costs $1,050 a month. I feel lucky that
I was able to find an apartment that is clean and in good repair. There
is a shortage of housing in Kotzebue that makes it difficult to find
adequate housing. Many people who move here take anything they can find
available, sight unseen. They often arrive to find the apartment or
house they have rented filthy and in need of work to make repairs but
they cannot move elsewhere because there isn't anything else. When I
moved to Kotzebue, I rented my first apartment over the phone and
arrived to find the furnished apartment very dirty, lacking furniture,
and sinking into the permafrost on one side. I cleaned the apartment as
best I could, sealed a broken window with plywood and made my new home
as comfortable as possible but I did not feel like Kotzebue would be my
home for long. Luckily, I found another apartment just before the end
of my first school year that even though small is comfortable and
clean. My only complaint now is the excessive cost of housing in
Kotzebue. I would like to move into a larger place but cannot afford to
do so. My current rent is about a third of my salary each month.
My job takes me to each of the villages surrounding Kotzebue where
I stay with other teachers while I am there. There is some district
owned teacher housing in each of the 10 villages. The quality of this
housing varies greatly from village to village. Buckland, Kivalina,
Noatak, Noorvik, and Shungnak have school district housing for all
teachers but many are living with roommates when they would prefer not
to if more housing were available. In Ambler, Deening, Kiana, Kobuk,
and Selawik there is school district housing for the school
administrator and some of the teachers. The district leases housing
from the community if there is not enough district housing. In the
villages that will allow it, some of the teachers have purchased or
built their own homes. Some of the housing does not have plumbing and
many of the units are badly in need of renovations and repairs. Some
teachers have reported unsafe conditions in or around their apartments.
We had a teacher injured from a fall due to a leak in her ceiling that
has been there for over a year and not been repaired. Some of our
teachers haul their own water and oil for their houses and a few are
still dealing with honey-buckets.
The Rural Teacher Housing Act of 2003 would help the district in
attracting and retaining quality educators. We currently have about a
30-percent turnover each year and housing conditions and cost are a
large part of the reason people leave. Each year, as I think about
signing my contract and create a list of positives and negatives,
housing is the only thing in the negative column for me. This act would
make it possible for the district to build and provide housing for
Kotzebue educators, which would allow more people to feel able to make
it their home. Our villages need more housing to be built and for
serious renovations to be made. Many educators move to Northwest Arctic
with the intent of making it their home but if they do not have
adequate, comfortable, affordable housing they will not stay. The high
teacher turnover that we currently have is hard on the children in the
region and I think anything we can do to improve teacher retention will
benefit our kids.
Prepared Statement of Frank Hill, Co-Director, Alaska Rural Systemic
Initiative Alaska Federations of Natives
Good morning, Chairman Murkowski, and other honorable members of
the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, ladies and gentlemen:
For the record, my name is Frank Hill, Co-Director, Alaska Rural
Systemic Initiative; [AKRSI] a project sponsored by Alaska Federation
of Natives [AFN]. As the Honorable Lisa Murkowski knows, AFN is a
statewide Native organization formed in 1966 to represent Alaska's
100,000+ Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts on concerns and issues which
affect the rights and property interests of the Alaska Natives on a
statewide basis.
On behalf of AFN, it's Board of Directors and membership, thank you
very much for inviting me to submit my comments regarding S. 1905, the
Rural Teacher Housing Act of 2003. We applaud the efforts of the
Honorable Lisa Murkowski in resolving the housing conditions for the
teachers who teach in rural Alaska.
I ask that this written statement and my oral comments be
incorporated into the record of this public hearing. I further request
that the record of this hearing remain open for at least 2 weeks so
that representatives of the Alaska Native Community may submit their
comments regarding these bills as well.
My previous experience in Alaska education totals 29 years,
including classroom math and science teacher, education program
administrator, and 11 years as Superintendent. With the exception of 3
years in Anchorage Schools, all of my educational experiences were in
rural Alaska schools.
Comments on S. 1905
Thank you for introduction of S. 1905; AFN supports this bill for a
number of reasons, including but not limited to addressing the housing
needs of teachers in rural Alaska. This bill, if Congress would pass it
will solve one of the true human needs that exist in the education
process as it addresses rural Alaska--the housing needs of the teachers
and the educators in rural Alaska.
In 1999, Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of
Natives, submitted a report to Congress entitled AFN IMPLEMENTATION
STUDY. This is a 23-page document on Proposals to the U.S. Congress to
implement recommendations of the Alaska Natives Commission pursuant to
Public Law 104-270. One of the proposals included in the AFN
IMPLEMENTATION STUDY addresses issues on SUPPORTING ALASKA NATIVE
EDUCATION. For example, one of the key findings of the Alaska Natives
Commission's Final Report to Congress was the critical need to create
and implement programs designed to improve the quality of education for
young Alaska Natives.
The Commission found that innovative education programs were needed
to help reverse the deterioration of socio-economic conditions and the
poor educational performance of many Alaska Native children, the
majority of whom attend schools in small and remote traditional Native
villages.
The Commission also urged that parents and community leaders become
compelling voices in directing Alaska's formal education system; that
the education system employ teachers and administrators knowledgeable
about Native cultures and respectful of them; and that Alaska Natives
receive an integrated education-one that provides them not only with
the skills to succeed in life, but also the understanding necessary to
carry on their cultures' community values.
I raised these two points, in part, to demonstrate that it is
critical to attract teachers and educators with qualifications to rural
Alaska; and it is critical to see that they have incentives to remain
in rural Alaska. One of those incentives would be quality housing as
intended by S. 1905 if it is enacted into law.
The retention of qualified teachers and educators in rural Alaska
has a definite potential of improving the quality of education received
by the students attending the schools in rural Alaska school districts,
I believe. Improved education by the students attending rural school
districts will improve the chances of such students to obtain higher
education-either college or technical with greater success.
The passage of S. 1905 will have the following ancillary benefits
as well:
1. Employment Opportunities: Unemployment in rural Alaska
ranges on the average, 60 to 80 percent in the villages. The
passage of S. 1905 will create employment opportunities, at
least during the construction of the housing units is concerned
where it is really needed.
2. Local Hire: S. 1905 should mandate local hire of qualified
people, both Alaska Native and non-Native, living in the
villages where the construction of the housing units will take
place. In this instance, local would mean people living in the
communities where the teacher housing construction would occur.
3. Improvement of Local Economies: Local hire will have a short
term improvement of local economies where it is really needed;
and while these improvements may be short term, they will be
beneficial to those communities.
4. Ownership of Housing and Land: AFN strongly recommends that
the local village entities, including the local village
corporation and/or local tribal entity, be given the first
right of refusal on the ownership of the housing units in the
villages. The housing units in the villages would be leased by
the school district under which the local school operates. This
will ensure that the landlords of the housing units are local
rather than some distant owner.
5. Program Policies: On page 9, beginning on line 19, S. 1905
states that the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, after
consulting with eligible school districts, shall establish
policies governing the administration of grant and loan funds
made available under this Act. AFN strongly recommends the
inclusion and the participation of local entities where the
eligible district is located. One of the critical elements of
the success of the housing units envisioned pursuant to S. 1905
is the ``local ownership'' in terms of policy of these units.
6. Authorization of Appropriations: During a recent discussion
with a knowledgeable school administrator, it was estimated
that at least $100 million would be needed annually to address
the teacher housing needs in rural Alaska. AFN recommends that
Congress considers actual appropriations of at least $100
millions annually to implement the intent of this bill through
the life of this authorization.
Since public schooling began in rural Alaska, even in the best of
scenarios, it has been challenging to deliver consistently high quality
instruction to Alaska Natives and other students in Alaska's rural
schools.
Among the many challenges facing Alaska's rural schools, is the
high level of teacher turnover, not just from year to year, but,
sometimes within the school year. This disruption of the instructional
process has been shown to be associated with negative affects on
student academic performance. [Grissmer et al, 2000]
This high level of teacher turnover in Alaska is, primarily, a
rural school problem. Alaska's largest urban districts have historic
annual turnover rates between 6 and 14 percent comparable to the
national average. [1996-2000] All Alaska districts with turnover rates
of 30 percent or more are rural districts far from the main road
system. A study entitled ``Retaining Quality Teachers for Alaska'', Wm.
McDiarmid, UAA/ISER, 2000, demonstrated that a primary reason for
teacher turnover is the lack of adequate or quality housing for
teachers.
Schools are required to use precious instructional funding to
recruit and hire new teachers year after year. Again, an issue only
rural schools in Alaska must deal with in this manner.
In order to attract and retain quality teachers for rural schools,
many rural school districts provide housing for their teachers; 11
rural school districts subsidize the cost of housing if district
teacher housing is not available. [Alaska Public School Teacher Salary
and Benefits Report, 2002-03, Alaska Association of School Boards].
Recently, a rural school Superintendent told me that 8 cents of every
school district dollar budgeted was to provide and maintain teacher
housing. Yet again, another expense only Alaska's rural schools must
deal with.
While a District Superintendent, I interviewed hundreds of
prospective teachers for the District's rural schools. One of the first
questions teachers asked was about the availability and quality of
teacher housing in the community they would be teaching.
The funding proposed by S. 1905 will be a welcome relief for rural
schools. If successful, the funding could effectively increase the
funds spent on instruction, and could lead to improvement in
instruction, and better student achievement.
Providing funding for rural school teacher housing would begin to
reduce the high teacher turnover rate in rural Alaska schools, thereby
decreasing the costs of annually recruiting new teachers. The funds
saved could be used in the instructional program instead.
I congratulate Senator Murkowski and the entire Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs for developing and sponsoring S. 1905. By removing the
issue of teacher housing for rural Alaska's schools as an issue that
negatively impacts student achievement, schools should be able to do a
better job of providing a quality education.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important issue. I
would be happy to answer questions regarding my testimony.
______
Prepared Statement of Melissa Hill, Alaska Teacher Placement Program
Director
Senator Murkowski, please accept this testimony which has been
endorsed by the following listed Teacher Placement Advisory Committee
Members, in support of S. 1905 to provide habitable living quarters for
teachers, administrators, other school staff, and their families in
rural areas of Alaska.
For the record, my name is Melissa Hill and I serve as the Alaska
Teacher Placement Program Director. Our program mission is to provide
leadership in identifying, attracting, and placing highly qualified
educators for our State. We work collaboratively with Alaska School
Districts, university leaders, and other educational entities to
promote the teaching profession in Alaska. We are located at the
University of Alaska Statewide, Academic Affairs Office of the
President.
We host the largest educator job fair in Alaska, post vacancies for
Alaska School Districts, collect and maintain applications from
teachers and administrators, and consult with educators interested in
working in Alaska Schools. I travel throughout Alaska and the Lower 48
meeting with educators and answering questions about teaching, living
and working in Alaska.
During the hiring season [February-July] in any given month our
website receives over 116,000 hits and we will respond to over 300 e-
mail inquiries, answer over 500 phone calls, and meet or consult with
over 200 educators during our presentations and recruiting sessions.
When speaking with educators interested in teaching in Alaska, we
advise them to inquire about teacher housing and ask questions such as:
\\\\\\Is the housing district owned?
\\\\\\Does the housing have running water or a honey bucket?
\\\\\\How much is the rent?
\\\\\\What type of heating systems is installed?
\\\\\\What is the condition of the housing?
\\\\\\Is it shared housing with someone else?
We can attest to the fact that housing is a serious concern for
educators, and it weights heavily on their decision to accept or reject
employment in many of our rural school districts.
In addition, limited housing also impacts the hiring and recruiting
process. For example, it is not uncommon for ATP to post a vacancy that
reads, ``teaching couple preferred'' or ``single male for shared
housing''. This type of recruiting forces districts to screen out
otherwise qualified candidates based on the limitations of housing in
that a particular village.
1Another factor impacting our new teachers is stagnant Alaska
salaries. Teaching salaries in Alaska have not kept up with teaching
salaries in the Lower 48. The lack of affordable housing, the increased
cost of living, including food and transportation have many new
teachers wondering if they can afford to relocate to rural Alaska. I
spoke with a recent graduate from UAA who just completed her rural
practicum. She indicated to me that she was interested in working in
rural Alaska, but was not sure if she could afford it on a new
teacher's salary. Perhaps, if affordable housing was available, this
individual would be less apprehensive about accepting employment in
rural Alaska. This is just one example.
It is our professional opinion that the Teacher Housing S. 1905
will greatly increase the Recruitment and Retention efforts going on
around the State; help Districts redirect dollars that should be spent
in the classroom, and offer our teachers and their families more
options when considering employment in rural Alaska.
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to submit this testimony.
ATP Advisory Committee Members and other Supporters:
1. Jim Hickerson, Assistant Superintendent Bering Strait School
District.
2. Gary Baldwin, Assistant Superintendent Lower Kuskokwim. School
District.
3. Carol Doyle, Superintendent Alaska Gateway School District.
4. Jeff Loftus, University of Alaska Southeast Professor.
5. Donna Gail Shaw, Associate Dean for Student and Curriculum
Affairs, UAA College of Education.
6. Lorrie Scoles, Director Alaska New Teacher Mentoring and
Induction Program.
Prepared Statement of Eric Madsen, Director, Rural Program Development
School of Education, University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK
Senator Murkowski and members of the S. 1905 Hearing Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on S. 1905, the Rural Teacher
Housing Act of 2003.
My comments are predicated on the assumption that while the
immediate issue before us is habitable living quarters for teachers,
administrators, and other school staff, the larger goal is increasing
the academic achievement of the students in the eligible communities.
Certainly any measures that enhance rural Alaska school districts'
ability to recruit and retain skilled teachers would be helpful toward
that larger goal. However, I believe that improving teacher housing
would be most helpful in the context of a broader initiative.
When Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867, schooling for Alaska
Native students fell under the prevailing assimilationist paradigni
exemplified in the 1819 Civilization Fund Act, established specifically
to ``civilize'' Native American students in the Lower 48. This paradigm
was extended to Alaska through practices such as delegating
responsibility for schools for Native students to missionary societies,
and through policies such as the Nelson Act of 1905, which
distinguished between students of mixed blood leading ``civilized''
lives and white students, on one hand, and students of mixed blood not
leading ``civilized'' lives and Native students, on the other.
In 30 years working with rural communities, I have rarely heard
anyone suggest that teachers from outside those communities are not
necessary and helpful components of strong, well-rounded academic
programs. But if our goal is only to make teachers from outside rural
communities somewhat more physically comfortable so that we can extend
their tenure by a couple of years, we run the risk of being perceived
as doing little more than perpetuating the assimilationist paradigm to
another generation of rural students, which I am sure is not the intent
of this bill. In contrast, linking such an initiative to the larger
issues would support rural communities' efforts to develop the kinds of
schools that reflect their values and aspirations. There are several
ways to approach this task.
First, while providing funds and a funding mechanism to improve
housing for rural teachers would be a constructive step, it should be
implemented within a context of improving housing and public facilities
in rural communities, in general, to the extent those communities so
desire. Absent this broader context, long-term residents of rural
communities might reasonably ask why teacher housing should be any
better, or any more of a priority, than housing for those who live
there full-time.
Second, in order to improve the overall quality of students' school
experiences and their academic achievement, I would suggest directing a
portion of the available funds toward improving teacher housing, to
respond to immediate needs, and a larger portion toward assisting long-
term residents to become fully certificated, highly qualified, teachers
in their home communities, to address the larger goal. Long-term
residents have deep understanding of their communities, their schools,
and their students, and many of them have years of experience in
teaching and teaching assistance roles. Not incidentally, residents of
rural communities also have their own housing. As my colleague Dean
Norris-Tull observed in a conversation about Hearing, March 16,
Anchorage Alaska Eric Madsen, Director, Rural Program Development S.
1905, Rural Teacher Housing Act School of Education, University of
Alaska Fairbanks this topic, supporting rural residents' aspirations to
become educators in their home communities simultaneously addresses, in
a very real way, both the housing issues and the larger successful
school experiences issues.
Such assistance might take several forms. The most direct approach
would be to make academic scholarships available directly to long-term
residents, contingent only upon satisfactory progress through a teacher
preparation program. A second, and perhaps companion, form of support
would be to fund release-time from work so that students who already
serve in teaching assistance roles could remain close to their
classrooms while completing their preparation programs. Third, I would
urge you to pursue the improvement of teacher housing, but to consider
doing so within the context of improving rural housing, in general.
The funding mechanisms to support teachers in training and rural
housing improvement are already contemplated in S. 1905: tribally
designated entities and village corporations for the scholarships and
housing initiatives, and school districts for release time funding.
S. 1905's intent to provide habitable living quarters for rural
teachers is a constructive step. Teachers play critical roles in the
lives of students, and teachers who stay in rural communities long
enough to become participants in community life and to better
understand and appreciate their students are much more likely to
fulfill their roles effectively. They deserve, and doubtless would
appreciate, safe, comfortable, functional housing.
That said, long-term residents of rural communities also deserve
and would appreciate safe, comfortable, functional housing. Perhaps
more to the point, rural students deserve teachers who have deep
understanding of, and long-term commitment to, their communities.
Certainly this includes the large number of teachers who grew up and
trained elsewhere, but have found rural communities to be personally
satisfying and professionally rewarding places to live, work, and raise
their families. There are many of them, and their personal
contributions to rural villages and their professional contributions to
rural schools are significant and must be appreciated.
Nevertheless, the roughly 100-year history of public schooling in
Alaska suggests that it is most frequently the residents of rural
communities who provide both the continuity in those schools, and also
the orientation and the nurturing that helps new teachers from outside
become long-term, contributing participants in those settings.
I encourage you, Senator Murkowski, to pursue the initiative in S.
1905, but to consider doing so within the context of improving housing
for all of the residents of the eligible communities and assisting
long-term residents to assume professional roles as teachers and
administrators in their home communities and regions.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on S. 1905.
Question: Would loans with a forgiveness feature be a viable
alternative to, or option in addition to, scholarships?
Answer: In my opinion, no. There have been several programs over
the years, and at least one currently operating, that included payback
or forgiveness clauses. Experience indicates that students are
extremely reluctant to participate. I believe that their reluctance is
rooted in the very problem this hearing is designed to address: under-
preparation for post-secondary academic work. There are many university
students who graduated from rural schools who do well in university
level academic programs, including those typically considered highly
demanding. But rural high school graduates are also well aware that too
many of their peers--some of whom graduated at the tops of their
classes, often with honors--found themselves found themselves woefully
underprepared for university level work. Given this ambiguity, our
experience has been that many rural students are reluctant to assume
large school-related debts until they have had a chance to test their
skills in the post-secondary academic environment.
Please allow me to add that I do not intend this response as a
criticism of the current cadre of students, educators, administrators,
parents, or board members in our rural schools. It is a sad consequence
of the legacy that all of us, as participants in the rural public
schooling, have built up over the years. That is why I encourage us now
to pay due attention to immediate needs, such as improved housing, but
also to more sustainable solutions, such as developing a teaching force
with both academic expertise and deep understanding and long-term
commitment to the communities under discussion.
______
Prepared Statement of Carl Rose, Executive Director, Association of
Alaska School Boards
For the record, my name is Carl Rose, Executive Director of the
Association of Alaska School Boards. On behalf of Alaska's elected
school board members, I would like to thank Sen. Murkowski and the U.S.
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for tackling the issue of rural
teacher housing.
AASB supports S. 1905, proposing a grant program to build housing
for school district employees in rural Alaska. Inferior or unavailable
teacher housing has been a long-time concern for school districts in
rural Alaska. AASB Resolution 4.4, passed by our membership in November
2003, specifically cites inadequate rural teacher housing as a
contributing factor in the teacher and administrator shortage.
The lack of suitable teacher housing in rural Alaska is really
about reducing the teacher turnover rate. It is about attracting, and
more importantly retaining, quality educators in areas of the state
that need them most.
It is no surprise that rural Alaska, for the most part, lags behind
the rest of the State, for a variety of reasons, when it comes to
measurements of student achievement. Today, we are more serious than
ever about changing that. Closing the achievement gap between the
indigenous peoples of Alaska and others will require commitment-it will
require quality instructors, involved parents, engaged students, caring
communities, adequate funding, and yes, reasonable accommodations for
school staff.
We must remember, housing is a basic need. By not attending to
this, teachers are forced to spend their valuable discretionary time
tending to this basic need rather than on classroom planning and other
educational activities. The impact on the continuity of instructional
programming is profound.
Exit interviews of departing teachers often cite their housing
situation as a contributing factor in the decision to leave.
Administrators lament their inability to secure funds for teacher
housing when there are so many unmet needs in the way of student
programs, major maintenance repairs and school construction needs.
The reality is--housing, in many parts of rural Alaska, is
substandard when compared to the rest of the country. Some teachers
have complained upon seeing their housing that they were tricked into
coming to the district. The fact is, what appears to be substandard
housing to new hires may, in fact, be the norm for that community.
Instead, we talk about Alaska's high starting salaries and the
Great Alaskan Adventure in order to attract potential educators. Yet,
for some teachers, the quality of teacher housing when they get to the
district is anything but great. Poor insulation, leaking ceilings, and
honey buckets, in the end, do little to retain quality educators.
Consider these anecdotes. In Kodiak, 1 year the district placed a
teacher with construction skills on the payroll for 2 weeks prior to
the school year so he could upgrade a teacher housing facility that
contained a simple barrel wood stove into a livable unit. In Arctic
Village, two teachers new to the village arrived, assuming that the
teacher housing available last year would be available this year. It
was not. One teacher ultimately found housing from a contractor who was
leaving for the school year. The other teacher stayed in the school for
a number of weeks while another unit was made available. She then moved
into a vacant property [a known party home with a barrel stove] while
renovations continued.
Last year Education Secretary Rod Paige and Sen. Murkowski were
able to see first-hand the conditions facing rural Alaska. They, too,
heard stories from teachers living out of classrooms, even closets.
If we really believe that all children can learn, and if we truly
believe that No Child should be Left Behind, then we must create the
environment in which that can happen. Adequate teacher housing that
helps retain quality teachers is part of that equation.
For its part, the State of Alaska has been unable to meet the
growing backlog of major maintenance and school construction projects
for public schools for nearly 20 years. A tremendous backlog exists
today-somewhere in the neighborhood of $530 million-and that does NOT
include teacher housing. Our highest priority is to put money into the
classroom. But skyrocketing operational costs and other mandates take
money out of the classroom. Way down on the list of priorities is
teacher housing.
For well over a decade we in Alaska have been managing decline. The
loss of buying power due to inflation, coupled with increased fixed
costs in the operational budget, have had a tremendous impact on the
educational dollar.
As a young and rapidly growing State, Alaska is simply unprepared
to address rural teacher housing at this time. Our infrastructure needs
outpace available resources.
In conclusion. . . For many districts, staff housing is simply low
on the priority list when it comes to spending scarce educational
resources. A rural teacher housing program would not only help
alleviate an immediate problem, it would help the state recognize just
how important adequate teacher housing is toward success in the village
classroom. It would provide a roadmap to follow into the future.
Thank you for your time.
Questions for Carl Rose, Association of Alaska School Boards
1. What has the State done recently to address rural teacher
housing in Alaska?
Answer: Under pressure from the State supreme court, proposition C
passed in November 2002. General obligation bonds are paying for $170
million in rural school construction and major maintenance projects. A
debt reimbursement program was also implemented for communities with
taxing authority. Funding for new schools and major maintenance meant
that, for some rural districts, funds could be freed up elsewhere in
the budget to address other priorities, including housing needs.
In 2003 the Alaska Legislature passed S. 25 establishing within the
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation a teachers and nurses housing loan
program to assist public school teachers and registered nurses to
purchase housing with no down payment. Loans are for owner-occupied,
single-family housing and may be made only to an individual employed
full-time in a public school in the state who is required to be
certificated and holds a position as a teacher, counselor, principal,
vice or assistant principal, provider of special education or related
services, or as a registered nurse and is licensed to practice
registered nursing. The loan can be up to 100 percent of the value of
the property. The legislature appropriated $2.1 million within the
capital budget to pay for the program. This year, Governor Murkowski is
proposing to revamp the program to make it more user friendly for
school districts.
2. Why do so many districts appear unable to take steps to ensure
teachers have adequate housing?
Answer: It's really a matter of priorities. School districts have
been managing decline for well over a decade in Alaska. Schools are
faced with trying to protect the basic educational program. For
example, trying to attract a new k-12 math teacher takes precedent. The
$10,000 earmarked for housing renovations may be better spent on a
travel stipend to attract a few quality teachers to the community.
Housing needs get put on the back burner.
3. Doesn't Alaska have reserve funds that could be used to address
rural teacher housing needs?
Answer: It is true that Alaska has a Permanent Fund--a State
savings account that pays dividends to residents. It is currently
valued at $28 billion. Like most funding sources, however, the
Permanent Fund has strings attached. The Permanent Fund is
constitutionally protected. Alaskans are currently debating whether or
not to use earnings from the fund to pay for government services. We
have been down this road before-unsuccessfully.
4. Other States have rural areas. What is unique about Alaska's
rural areas that make the issue of teacher housing so challenging?
Answer: The cultural differences are many. There is the language
barrier: English is still a second language in some areas. How you make
eye contact matters. How fast you talk matters. How much time you give
to a person when waiting for a response. . . matters.
Construction and maintenance in permafrost conditions present their
own set of obstacles. There is a short construction season dictated by
the weather.
Distance: Replacing an oil stove part may require flying the piece
in to the village. You cannot run down the street to the nearest
hardware store in a village of 200 people, with no paved roads and
perhaps only 1 or 2 vehicles, and expect it to be stocked as if it were
a community of 80,000.
Living conditions: Living in a plywood cabin with a barrel stove,
without paved roads, with one village sewage lagoon, may seem like
third world living conditions to some, but it is the standard in some
villages where only 100 years ago the indigenous people were nomadic.
The challenges it poses to attracting and retaining quality educators
are considerable.
Safety: In many rural areas there is no police protection, only
Village Public Safety Officers.
5. How can we help you? What can we do to best address rural
teacher housing in Alaska?
Answer: This is a great first step. Highlight the issue. Create a
housing program that is workable and easy for districts to participate
in. Make it a priority. Then fund it.
______
Prepared Statement of Roger Sampson, Commissioner, Department of
Education and Early Development
Many of Alaska's remote, rural school districts face chronic
teacher shortages. Each year districts must actively recruit educators
to fill as many as half of the available teaching jobs. For the most
part, the educators that take the positions are new to the teaching
profession and have no experience with the unique cultures and
lifestyle found in rural Alaska. It is difficult for the teachers to
adapt to life in remote villages, and most teachers do not stay long.
The lack of availability of quality housing is certainly one issue
that teachers note when they leave remote districts. Teachers rarely
can find private living quarters, and when they are able to share
apartments or housing they are forced to pay extremely high rent for
substandard living conditions. In extreme cases, teachers and
administrators are unable to find any housing, and are forced to live
at the school.
The high teacher turnover rate in rural villages is one of several
factors that negatively impacts student performance. There is a direct
link between high turnover rates and low proficiency on State
assessments. In fact, our lowest performing schools in the State are
found in rural Alaska. As we work to reform the education system, we
must find ways to help our rural districts attract highly qualified
educators, and keep them in the districts once they are hired.
I believe that the Rural Teacher Housing Act is a critical tool to
help turn the tide in Alaska's remote school districts. It will
certainly help districts meet one of the major challenges they face in
attracting educators. I urge you to support this legislation.
______
Prepared Statement of Christopher Simon, Superintendent
Thank you for your interest and involvement in education issues in
rural Alaska and for working to address our concerns related to teacher
housing. I welcome the opportunity to provide support for S. 1905 and
share experiences of providing teacher housing with you.
The Yukon-Koyukuk School District covers the Western interior of
Alaska, an area of 65,000 square miles. Geographically, the district is
larger than the state of Washington. Our schools serve nine villages of
about 1,650 people with 430 school-aged children in grades K-12. More
than 90 percent of the students are Koyukon or Tanana Athabaskan
Indians. Except for Minto and Manley Hot Springs, travel to and from
our schools is by scheduled commuter or charter air service. Raven
Correspondence School is a statewide correspondence program, which
embraces 1,399 students and their families.
Y-KSD is a Rural Educational Attendance Area [REAA] whose schools
are governed by the Regional School Board elected by voters of the
communities under the laws of the State of Alaska. Y-KSD employs 64
certified teachers, administrators and specialists, most of whom are
endorsed in their field of placement.
Y-KSD is an equal opportunity agency whose programs and employment
are available to all qualified individuals regardless of race, creed,
gender, disability or country of origin. Y-KSD, as per Federal law, is
a gun-free and drug-free place for learning and working.
According to standardized test scores over the last 13 years, the
students at our village sites performed between the 18th and 40th
percentile. Over the last 5 years there has been an increase in the
scores, which are currently sitting between the 30th and 40th
percentile. Under the Federal law of No Child Left Behind, each school
is to meet Adequate Yearly Progress or eventually face sanctions. At
this point, four of our five village sites meet AYP, four schools are
at AYP Level I, and one is at AYP Level II.
In order to provide a sound education, attain better test results
to meet AYP and increase students' test scores, all rural schools need
outstanding teachers and principals.
One of our biggest obstacles in providing a sound education is
teacher and principal turnover. Between this year and last year, Y-KSD
had a 29-percent turnover in teachers and a 44-percent turnover in
principals. Three teachers and one school counselor left one or more of
our communities since school started in August. Studies have shown that
hiring teachers with 3 to 5 years of experience pays the biggest
dividends in the classroom. What we have now is rural districts hiring
young teachers who stay 2 to 4 years then leave to find employment in
an urban district or one that is connected by the road system. We are,
in fact, training teachers. We are the ones who need experienced,
dedicated teachers for the children under our care.
One of the first questions an interested teacher or principal asks
is ``Is housing provided? And if so, what is the rent?'' Not long
afterward is the question: ``Do I have to share housing?'' Adequate
teacher housing is vital to the success of our students. Unfortunately,
the choice of spending scarce resources for classroom equipment and
supplies or for teacher housing is something we face every year. Y-KSD
would rather not be in the business of teacher housing because it is
being operated at a loss. Ten years ago, Y-KSD gave half of its teacher
housing to a village corporation free of charge. Last summer, this same
corporation gave the last housing unit back to the district. Providing
housing is a time-consuming and financial burden to any organization.
However, Y-KSD provides this service at a loss so quality teachers may
be hired to teacher the children of this district.
The issue of substandard teacher housing is raised in this bill.
Yes, this is an issue this district faces. Two years ago, Y-KSD
provided a rental free-of-charge to a couple and their two young
children. This district did not want to be held responsible if any harm
came to this young family due to the condition of the building.
Currently, two teachers are renting a duplex that is 29 years old and
very inefficient. The estimated operational cost is $247,000 over the
next 6 years. Four years ago, in another village, Y-KSD purchased a
house which included a storage shed. This same shed had been converted
to a housing unit. Three years ago, a young man and his daughter lived
in the school for 2 months before finding a local house to rent.
This district has been trying to meet the housing needs of its
teachers. But in doing so, it takes funds and maintenance time away
from the schools. Since 2000, Y-KSD spent $702,138 on housing instead
of the classroom.
The cost of constructing a two bedroom, one bathroom house in 2002
was $169,000. Included in this cost is the purchase price of $99,677,
and $69,992 for freight, construction, and utility hook-ups. An
estimated 17 rental units in six communities are required to meet our
teacher housing needs in the next few years. Y-KSD simply does not have
the amount of funds necessary to build housing.
In closing, teacher housing is a necessity for rural districts,
usually operated at a loss and takes scarce resources away from the
school. Thank you again for your interest and concern.