WC to State House: Listen to Vic

Vic Fischer

Vic Fischer told the State House Education Committee not to do it.

For those not aware of Alaska history, Vic Fischer is one of the two surviving members of the Alaska Constitutional Convention, the group that wrote the Alaska Constitution. He’s one of the very few surviving members of the group that created the State of Alaska. In a real and important sense, he is a Founding Father of Alaska, except that he is still around to speak for himself, instead of suffering the distortions and fabrications of the country’s Founding Fathers. He is also a pre-eminent scholar of government and politics. He should command the respectful attention of the Legislature.

What Vic said is that a constitutional amendment to enable educational voucher programs is a bad idea. Actually, the word he used is “lousy.”

No one would ‘fess up at the hearing, but the joint resolution’s sponsor, Wes Keller (R, Wasilla) has a specific goal in mind: passing public funds to private – read, “church” – schools. It’s been a big goal of the Christianist wing of the Alaska Republican Party for a long time. With a majority in both the House and the Senate, and Captain Zero to sign anything, not matter how awful, the mob may enact, why the Christianists think victory may be at hand.

The voters, of course, think the Alaska Constitution is just fine as is. As recently as November 2012, the voters rejected a call for a state constitutional convention by a two to one margin. Two to one. But that’s not enough for the axe-grinders. Just like the Legislature could not accept the voter-mandated cruise industry regulation, the Legislature has the effrontery to think they are smarter than the folks who elected them. If you reflect on it for a moment, it’s fundamentally undemocratic.

But the Christianists, blinded by the disco ball light of their goals, don’t care about democracy, or what folks older and more sensible than them may say. Those older and more sensible folks would include John Heywood, who wrote in the 15th Century,

Who is so deafe or so blinde as is hee
That wilfully will neither heare nor see?

Rep. Keeler was disingenuous at the hearing. Rep. Lynn Gattis (R., Wasilla) was equally deceptive.

Should this get passed and the voters of Alaska make the choice, then we’re definitely going to have to sit down and really have those hard conversations on what this may mean to our state. I think we’re way ahead of ourselves asking these questions.

No, Ms. Keller. You see the constitutional amendment as a means to the goal of private school vouchers. Let’s talk about your goal, not your means to the goal.

For Vic Fischer and, as you may guess, WC, the Alaska Constitution is a little more somber, a little more serious, than a mere obstacle, a speed bump on the road to your Christianist goals.