Alaska Education Policy Initiative (2020)
| Alaska Education Policy Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2020 | |
| Topic Education | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type State statute | Origin Citizens |
The Alaska Education Policy Initiative did not qualify to appear on the ballot in Alaska as an indirect initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.
The initiative concerned education policy in Alaska. Proponents referred to the initiative as the "Alaska Students' Educational Bill of Rights."[1]
Text of measure
Full text
The full text of the initiative can be found here.
Path to the ballot
The state process
In Alaska, the number of signatures required for an indirect initiated state statute is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. Alaska also has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures equal to 7 percent of the vote in the last general election must be collected in each of three-fourths of the 40 state House districts. Petitions are allowed to circulate for 365 days from the date the lieutenant governor issues petition booklets to be distributed for signature gathering. Signatures must be submitted 365 days after the lieutenant governor issued petition booklets to be distributed for signature gathering or before the legislative session begins, whichever comes first.
The requirements to get an indirectly initiated state statute certified for the 2020 ballot:
- Signatures: 28,501 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was 365 days after the lieutenant governor issued petition booklets to be distributed for signature gathering or before the legislative session began on January 21, 2020, whichever comes first.
In Alaska, when enough signatures are verified for an initiative, the initiative is not certified for the ballot until after "a legislative session has convened and adjourned." This gives the Legislature a timeframe to consider the proposal or similar legislation. The initiative is void when “an act of the legislature that is substantially the same as the proposed law was enacted after the petition had been filed, and before the date of the election," according to state law.[2] Otherwise, the initiative is certified to appear on the ballot for the first statewide election 120 days after the legislature's adjournment.
The signature deadline for this initiative would have been October 6, 2020.
Details about this initiative
- Amy Jo Meiners, Alexander Jorgensen, and Rabbi Abram Goodstein filed this initiative on August 1, 2019.[3]
- Proponents announced they would stop collecting signatures to qualify the measure on December 6, 2019. Alaskans for Excellent Public Education wrote that the measure was "not feasible at this time," and that "many organizations whose contributions would have created a more comprehensive and successful initiative were not included."[4][5]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Alaska Division of Elections, "Petition ID 19SEBR full text," accessed August 6, 2019
- ↑ Alaska Department of Elections, "Public Information Packet on Initiatives," accessed January 24, 2024
- ↑ Alaska Division of Elections, "Initiative petition list," accessed August 6, 2019
- ↑ Alaskans for Excellent Public Education, "Home," accessed December 10, 2019
- ↑ Anchorage Daily News, "Supporters suspend push for ballot measure on education ‘bill of rights’," accessed December 10, 2019
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