Senator Bettye Davis wants to require students to stay in school longer. What the AlaskaPolicy.Net wants to know is how is Bettye going to fund this idea.

While Districts like ASD actually count on absenteeism at the high school level (many classrooms would not have enough seats if all the students rergistered attended all their classes, and absenteeism among registered students is outrageous, forget about the 40 per cent of the students who have drpped out) the fact of the matter is that the cost of just enfocing our existing mandatory attendance requirements would cost the state millions. And we have yet to consider the teacher cost alone of staffing some 15000 additional students (about $35 milion at 30 students per classroom). Now add the cost of incremental services as these would be students whose needs far outstrip those of the existing unserved population.

Bettye, how about if we just try and fund the existing program…..