Brandy Harty deserves support in her fight to support Fairbanks schools; Republican legislators attacking her want to change the subject

Brandy Harty, president of the school board in Fairbanks, should have chosen her words more carefully. She misquoted a comment made in the legislative newsletter of Anchorage Rep. Zack Fields and did not present enough detail to put it in context.

But should she listen to the seven right-wing Republicans calling for her to apologize and resign?

Apologize? Yes. Here is her apology saying that her comments were wrong.

Resign? No way.

Sens. Robert Myers, Mike Shower and Reps. Frank Tomaszewski, Mike Cronk, Kevin McCabe, Mike Prax and Will Stapp said she no longer deserves to be school board president.

Nonsense.

The politicians have yet to accept their share of the responsibility for the budget crisis facing Alaska schools. They are desperate to change the subject.

Here is their Woe is We bill of particulars.

To his credit, Republican Sen. Click Bishop did not sign the attack on Harty.

The magnificent seven calling for her head should climb down off their high horses and admit that they are trying to divert attention from the real issue—the collective failure of Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his Republican allies to provide education funding that is needed right now in Fairbanks and across Alaska.

The seven proved themselves to be more than willing to do exactly what they have attacked Harty for—misrepresenting comments about a public issue, while neglecting the context.

They accepted and inflated the exaggerated claims of the Republican Party’s propaganda machine when it attacked Harty.

Four of the seven—Myers, Tomaszewski, Cronk and McCabe—voted to support education funding when Senate Bill 140 was up for final passage and then reversed themselves the next month when pressured by Dunleavy.

Prax and Shower didn’t have to be lobbied by Dunleavy to oppose education funding.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has good coverage of this situation.

Harty, the mother of two school children, is new to politics and hasn’t mastered the practice of saying one thing and doing another, while concealing her emotions. She has been attacked and ridiculed by Republicans for crying at a meeting during which the board voted to close Eielson Junior-Senior High School because of a budget crisis exacerbated by the governor and his legislative allies.

At that tense school board meeting, Harty criticized three local Republican lawmakers who reversed themselves on school funding, which made the Eielson shutdown all but inevitable. But first she praised those who supported education, including Republican Will Stapp.

“I want to thank the legislators that had courage to stand up for our most valuable resource Alaska has — our children — and our Interior Delegation, Rep. Carrick, Rep. Dibert, Sen. Bishop, Sen. Kawasaki, and Rep. Stapp, and that last name is significant. The last name is someone who was willing to buck the status quo and stand up for our kids because it was the right thing to do even with enormous pressure to do otherwise,” she said.

“To the other representatives — Rep. Tomaszewski, Sen. Myers, Rep. Cronk, and I slightly give Rep. Prax a pass because he didn’t vote for it to begin with so at least you stood by your vote — I am so utterly disappointed. Fairbanks deserved better. You are part of our community and we were clear what we needed and you let us all down. And I’ve heard rumors — and mind you they’re rumors so newspapers in the audience, I’m fully aware and don’t quote me on it — that you might have sold us down the river for a $70,000 campaign donation. I hope it was worth it.”

She should have explained her reference to $70,000.

It came from a newsletter by Anchorage Rep. Zack Fields, who said, “In pressuring Republicans to flip-flop and oppose a bill they previously supported, Dunleavy threatened to campaign and spend $70,000 per race against any Republicans who voted to override the veto.”

No Republican will confirm this on the record, of course. But Fields is sticking to his story and it is certainly plausible.

Harty should have mentioned the Fields newsletter or, better still, never brought it up at all. But it was a spur-of-the-moment remark about an emotional issue, not an official budget action or policy question considered at length.

The legislators who claim to be personally wounded are not guilty of a slip-of-the-lip or a spur-of-the-moment mistake, but an official budget action that has put all of our schools at risk. They had plenty of time to get this right and they chose to get it wrong.

That four of them, three from the Fairbanks area, voted in February to support the education budget increase, is what makes their opposition in March all the worse. The veto override failed by one vote.

Shortly after Tomaszewski voted for the education funding compromise in February, he sent out a “LET ME BE FRANK” update from Juneau, praising the Legislature for approving the bill. He was celebrating.

“We finally funded education,” Tomaszewski said.

He said the bill approved by the Legislature would mean about $29 million for Fairbanks schools, “which should close the deficit!”

He said “the Legislature has done its part in providing adequate educational funding, now we must join together in encouraging” the school board to keep these schools open, a reference to Eielson and other schools under review for closure.

“I am pleased to announce the House of Representatives has passed a bill that will completely eliminate the proposed budget shortfall for our school district,” Tomaszewski said on Facebook.

Let me be frank. When the veto override came up and Dunleavy beckoned, Tomaszewski was pleased to do nothing about the budget shortfall for Fairbanks schools. He flipped. He was doing his part for Dunleavy.

Cronk, who has a defined benefit state pension from his time as a teacher, complained in February about the education bill and claimed it was not a compromise.

But he found a good reason to vote for it. He said it contained what the school districts had told him they wanted the most—a figure for the base student allocation increase that they could count on.

Cronk said every school district wanted to know how much money to expect so they can “get contracts out and know what they’re gonna have. And we did that, biggest increase we’ve ever seen. I’m gonna leave it at that. That’s a real positive. We came together, Republicans, Democrats, independents—nonpartisans, I’m not sure. But we all came together. We got something done.”

But Cronk and the other Republicans in Dunleavy’s camp decided in March they didn’t want to get something done. He reversed his position and flipped his vote.

In the Senate, Myers said he voted for the education funding bill “in support of the hard work my House majority colleagues put into this bill and because it was the best deal that seemed available for an education package.”

But Myers also said he opposed the bill because a better deal might be available. He wants to be able to vote yes and no at the same time, an option that is not available.

Myers defeated Sen. John Coghill in 2020, claiming that Coghill, a fiscal and social conservative of long standing, was not conservative enough. Myers said then that education spending could be cut by $300 million without reducing the quality of education.

The legislative flip-floppers have put Alaska schools at risk. I understand why they would rather talk about a quick comment made by a school board president faced with a school closure that will have a real impact on local families.

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