PLEASE SIGN UP HERE for the final Education Summit Community Dialogue, to be held Wednesday, February 22nd at the Anchorage Senior and Activity Center, 1300 E. 19th Ave. Check in is at 5:15 p.m., the start is at 5:45 p.m. and it will run for about three hours. When I started out in college, I [...]

(Please note the information at the bottom of the article regarding the Anchorage Legislative Caucus Meeting on Saturday at the Loussac Library. Come and testify about Alaska education!) by Linda Kellen Biegel My family attended the “student-led parent/teacher conferences” at my daughter’s middle school Thursday evening. A big part of the conference this semester was [...]

By Rep. Les Gara While I look for common ground with our Governor – like our efforts to keep pushing to find ways to build a natural gas pipeline (we agree a large diameter line that exports gas, produces low-cost gas, and brings in revenue is smarter than a small in-state line that brings us [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel 2010 Hanshew Middle School Band Not many people in political circles know that I credit music with saving my life. I started playing the piano when I was six-years-old. I often kicked and screamed about practicing, but my mother was determined and I continued through my entire school career. In sixth [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel Last school year, I wrote a post about the proposed cuts in the Anchorage School District budget and how they would affect a family of a middle school student. It was then I became aware of the outrageous fees Mayor Dan Sullivan was charging the school district–for example: 100% of the [...]

There’s no doubt about it. Alaska is blessed. Just ask Governor Sean Parnell. These are golden oily days indeed. In his state of the state address last week, he told us that financially, we’re doing just fine, thankyouverymuch But what if…  What if some day we aren’t? We should really start cutting the budget just [...]

by Linda Kellen Biegel Last week, I listened-in on an Alaska Public Offices Commission hearing regarding an old friend of ours here at Mudflats, Mr. Bob Griffin. You remember Bob: – In April 2011, he ran on his status as a veteran and a pilot in order to win a seat the Anchorage School Board [...]

I remember the first time I heard about graduation coaches.

by Linda Kellen Biegel (Homeless Anchorage protestor John Martin and his faithful friend) On the same day that the world is outraged by the pepper-spraying of peaceful UC Davis protestors, Newt Gingrich still manages to capture the attention of the media. Friday, his announcement of “extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty [...]

On August 3rd, there was a regular meeting of the Municipality Budget Advisory Commission. (You remember, this is the commission that used to be two — the Budget Advisory Commission and the School Budget Advisory Commission. However, when the word “school” made people think twice about the appointment of one of the Mayor’s LGBT-hating wing-nutter [...]

  By Linda Kellen Biegel Here at The Mudflats we did a post not long ago about an incident discussed during an Anchorage School Board Meeting. It seems that Bob Griffin, a twice-failed candidate for the school board, was pulled over by the police. Here is the explanation in the words of School Superintendent Carol [...]

By Linda Kellen Biegel No, this is not a joke. Bob Griffin, Mayor Sullivan’s candidate for School Board (including personal donations from the Mayor and his wife) even had an encounter with the Anchorage Police School Resource Officers over the whole thing. From a recording of the May 23rd School Board Meeting: Don Smith: The [...]

In a previous post on the “Anti-Public Education Agenda”, we discussed how corporations and right-wing radicals were driving the “school choice” and education reform movements nationally and statewide. However, no one has played politics in this arena quite the way that Mayor Dan Sullivan has here in Anchorage: – Since the early days of his [...]

…And Hardly Anybody Knows It Many of us have heard the stories: new Republican Governors and Tea Party majorities in state legislatures across the country have been targeting public employees and their salaries, pensions, health benefits, etc… Along with this, there has been a major push at another budget-cut target — public school systems. Public [...]

Last week, an incident that had been dealt with several weeks ago at South High School came to a head. As written in the Anchorage Daily News: Violent lyrics written by a South High School student about attacking other students resulted in a felony charge of making terroristic threats and a 45-day emergency suspension from [...]