Did Rep Fairclough Lie at UAA?

Rep Fairclough came to UAA today to speak about education, resource development and funding the Alaska University system.

I did not take detailed notes or record the event in any way, so right now we are stuck with what I remember and how I remember it. I was counting on reporters from the UAA newspaper, The Northern Light, to report more fully on the event so I could not be distracted with writing and could participate in the conversation.

In other words... I tuned some of the other questions from the audience out, especially the first one which I strongly suspect was planted.

Rep Fairclough opening statement closely mirrored her previous press release: wanting to have a dialog with people, valuing free speech but wanting to inform people on just how important resource development is to Alaska's General Fund. She also stated how you can't believe a quote taken out of context and encouraged everyone to listen to the exchange on Gavel to Gavel.

Rep. Fairclough emphasized that she valued higher education, having taken some finance classes, and even though she did not agree with some of the thoughts coming out of the university, she values the minds the University helps to nurture, understand the cost of going to University and as a Chair on the University of Alaska Finance Sub-Committee she was looking for ways to make higher learning more affordable.

First question omitted for readability

I asked the second question.

I basically stated I was unsure about her previous statement of support for higher education and try to find ways to make education more affordable because in the last Legislature when she was a member of the Heath, Education and Social Services Committee she had a chance to support a bill that would have financial support to economically disadvantaged students, she made the same comments about the University being anti-development and then failed to support the bill. That makes it hard to believe she supports higher education as much as she said she does.

Rep. Fairclough stated she cannot remember if she made comments similar to what she said on Feb. 3rd, but she would believe its possible. Over the next five minutes or so she explained that she had to look forward at the stability of money coming in, all of the different options the House Health, Education and Social Services looked at for tuition relief and make a decision if it was worth it.

She mentioned that "we did move the bill out of committee" which was false, Rep Cissna and Gardner moved the bill out of committee while everyone else sat on their hands.

The next two people who asked questions where really talking about the same issue, asking if Rep Fairclough would support an Alaska achievers' scholarship fund (which would take appropriations, invest the money and the use the interest to pay scholarships). Rep Fairclough said she would.

Here is where I dropped the ball. I was not sure if the Alaska achievers' scholarship fund was the same bill I had mention previously, as I could not remember if the needs based scholarships in the 25th legislature spent the principle of the fund and this new bill was an improvement... so I kept quiet.

But the fact is that HB 94 of the 26 Legislature is the exact same bill, HB 397 of the 25 Legislature. The same damn bill that Rep Fairclough failed to support less than a year ago when Alaska had a multi-billion dollar surplus. The same damn bill that is being heard and held right now in the House Education

Rep Fairclough fudged the truth at least one time when she said "we moved [HB 397] out of committee" she failed an integrity test when she forgot to mention that the bill she failed to support last year is the one she said she 'supports' today.

If she wants to convince anybody of her sincerity she needs to very, very publicly speak out in support of HB 94, get it moved into Finance, use all of her political capital to get that sucker signed into law.

Otherwise she is just another self-serving, two-faced politician.