OPINION: How to turn Alaska around: Fifty years after big oil finds made Alaska the richest state, it has fallen to near last place on indicators of health, prosperity and hope. Universal pre-K could help address that.
At the state Capitol in Juneau, lawmakers, including standing from left, then-House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, an independent, Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich, middle, a Democrat, then-President Cathy Giessel, right, a Republican, confer after lawmakers failed to override Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy's budget vetoes on July 10, 2019. This is the first of three columns this week from writer Charles Wohlforth on the theme of turning Alaska around and building a better future.
Tom’s father, Nick Begich Sr., disappeared on a campaign flight while running for reelection to Congress in 1972, a few days before Tom’s 12th birthday. At Steller Secondary School, which opened in 1974, we used leftover stationary from the congressman’s office as scratch paper. In my experience, politics most often brings out the worst in people. But after a lifetime of this work, Tom continues to expect people to do the right thing. And he continues to be shocked and disappointed by their selfishness and betrayals — as he was betrayed by friends this spring when struggling to pass his most important legacy, for pre-K, and then quit.Begich began working almost a quarter-century ago to make state-funded, voluntary pre-K a basic part of Alaska public school education.
It’s not magic. Quality pre-K prepares kids for school and school success determines who makes it in our society — and the quality of society itself. “The bottom line, if they wanted my vote on the budget, they couldn’t mess with the pre-K funding, period,” he said. “And they knew that.” “‘I don’t want to give the governor a win.’ I heard that twice,” Begich said. “‘I don’t want to give the governor a win.’ The win was for kids. It was never for the governor.”
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