A patsy parade of 20 Republican legislators sided with Gov. Mike Dunleavy in blocking the bipartisan education bill that most of the 20 voted for last month.

Nearly two-thirds of the Legislature voted to override the veto of the bipartisan education bill, one vote shy of the margin needed to enact the measure into law. The vote was 23-16 in the House and 16-4 in the Senate.

They gave various excuses for turning against the bill they voted for last month, with some saying they supported the bill last month because they wanted it to be vetoed so they could vote against it. That is what passes for a mind game.

The real reason for their compliance is the desire to please the governor.

Dunleavy and the lapdogs blocked $200 million from going into education, money that schools districts across the state say they need desperately to attract teachers, keep class sizes low, maintain buildings and do the other things that make for good schools.

Dunleavy does not support public education. The same can be said about one-third of the Legislature.

Blogger Matt Buxton has the best analysis:

“By a single vote, the Alaska Legislature has failed to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a landmark education bill, dashing hopes of increasing the baseline school funding formula. During nearly two hours of debate, Republicans who had supported the original bill offered various explanations ranging from the need to take a second shoot at the legislation while others said they only voted for it because they were anticipating precisely this veto. In a bleak set of speeches, others questioned if investing in schools is worthwhile, leaving education’s future in limbo.”

Read his full post here.

Dunleavy had his handlers post this flimflam, perhaps to try to give political cover to the minority of legislators that sided with him. Or for damage control.

Dunleavy and his handlers expect everyone to forget about what he said last week about how his administration was not going to deal with education issues anymore.

“I think at this point we move on, we’ve got, we’ve got energy issues we have to deal with, we’ve got a whole host of issues we have to deal with,” Dunleavy said last week.

“I think we’re pivoting right now, we’re going to energy,” he said last week.

“I think the educational discussion is over and we got to move into energy,” he said last week.

The Fairbanks-area legislators who supported the bill before they turned against it, are Reps. Mike Cronk, a retired teacher with a state pension, Frank Tomaszewski and Sen. Robert Myers. Rep. Mike Prax was one of three legislators who voted against the bill in February. This time he had just enough company to kill the plan.

Rep. Will Stapp and Sen. Click Bishop, both Republicans, joined Democratic Sen. Scott Kawasaki and Reps. Ashley Carrick and Maxine Dibert in supporting the school funding.

It’s important to note that the Fairbanks school board meets Tuesday and will consider plans to close schools at the end of this school year because of a $28.5 million shortfall—including Ticasuk Brown, Eielson Junior-Senior High and Pearl Creek.

Cronk, Tomaszewski, Prax and Myers—who do little more than regurgitate Dunleavy’s talking points—deserve some of the responsibility for the prospect of closing schools and larger classes.

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Republican patsies, eager to please Dunleavy, cave on education bill