Judy Eledge, a well known Anchorage Republican, was paid $75,000 by the Dunleavy administration to do contract work on education. The State’s online checkbook shows two payments on July 26 – one for $30,000 from the Office of the Governor and one for $45,000 from the Department of Education and Early Development (DEED).
Eledge confirmed that she was paid for this work. According to her, the $30,000 from the Office of the Governor was to provide professional and policy research, analysis and reading assessment services to examine reading proficiency in the Alaska with a focus on K-3. This also included developing a three-year plan to address Alaska’s low performance in reading. Work on this contract was done between April and August.
The $45,000 from DEED was, according to Eledge, the result of a competitive bid to work on reading with the School Improvement Division. She said she applied for and won the grant through a competitive bidding process. This included subcontracting to three consultants that worked with her. It also paid for rent on a space from May 13 – June 30.
I reached out to the Office of the Governor for a comment and explanation. I will update the story when I hear back from then.
Eledge is the longtime President of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club. She was a vocal supporter of Mike Dunleavy when he ran for governor. She has since been a staunch and vocal supporter of him and his policies. Eledge retired as an educator and principal in 2003. She worked in both urban and rural Alaska. Since her retirement she has worked as an Alaska State Coach and Consultant for DEED on low performing school districts around Alaska.
This guy just keeps taking cronyism to new heights.
You don’t have to like Judy’s politics to acknowledge that she is a well-respected educator who is more than qualified for contracts of this nature. It is extremely disingenuous not to at least mention that she has decades of experience in public school administration.
Can you read? Literally from the article:
Eledge retired as an educator and principal in 2003. She worked in both urban and rural Alaska. Since her retirement she has worked as an Alaska State Coach and Consultant for DEED on low performing school districts around Alaska.
Uuhhhhh, I’ll assume you didn’t survey the rural districts she was involved with. Her views/opinions on Alaska Native people and communities is best described as creating a hostile work environment through her ignorance, prejudice and over-stepping ethical boundaries. Dig in a bit more before making blanket statements as to her being “well-respected”; she was asked to leave. Self-reporting does not meet that criteria.
Well respected?! That is certainly up for debate in education circles. Word is that she received the “contract” which was posted for only 24 hrs, with Judy having a heads up about the bid. IF true, this does not meet definition of a competitive process. There are many qualified literacy professionals in the state who may have been interested in submitting a proposal for the AK contract. More digging to be done…
Hey governor dunlevy, You wouldn’t have to spend 75000 on a private contract if your local school district administrators allowed teachers and staff to do there jobs and screen kids who are “behind grade level” for learning disabilities. Instead, you want to help one of your cronie friends score a contract. Well guess what governor, I can tell you why kids aren’t reading and I will do it for free. The majority of kids behind in reading have dyslexia or some other learning disability that has not been diagnosed or addressed. It’s not being diagnosed or addressed because your special… Read more »
Judy Eledge is an expert in teaching reading and training teachers how to teach reading. No problem with this.
so says she mostly…..
Is her work under these contracts publicly available?
Judy is well qualified and honest. You know her, Jeff. Does she seem like someone who could be bought off? I would expect she put way more work into these contracts than she was paid for.
I never said she was bought off. All I said was she was given the contracts and what the amounts were. Considering her support for Dunleavy, and he position with the ARWC, this is something the public deserves to be aware of.
The bigger issue is that this administration has shown us that crony capitalism is alive and well. This political environment creates a community of mistrust and less aisle crossing. If we want to have a well function government where both sides have healthy debates and make decisions together this is NOT the way to do it.
Judy whores out the Anchorage Republican Women’s club for big bucks every single day of the year. Yes, she can be bought off.
Judy is tough and str aight-forward; too bad those characteristics are considered liabilities in today’s society. Get’em, Judy‼️
I assume this “deal’ was done under Babcock. That said, she might be the greatest educator since Socrates; however the only line in her work history that counted is : “Eledge is the longtime President of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club. She was a vocal supporter of Mike Dunleavy when he ran for governor.” Bottom line: The appearance is hardly refutable that the ‘CBC” is back and it is back on steroids.
Now that Ben is no.2, expect a lot of buddy buy -offs to occur. He has to re-grease the repub crony system to get back in the groove, cuz he has been hiding out in the hole in the wall hoping all the past corruption will be forgotten. He has to be reborn into the party elite, and that costs dearly. The budget crisis is in full swing , burning millions of dollars a day. It is bodaciously bizarre to claim a fiscal cutting mantra on one hand , and handing out crony payoffs in the other. Talk the talk… Read more »
Before that she was a GIGANTIC Joe Miller booster. Isn’t that where she earned the tagline “too crazy even for the GOP”? Before that she was and likely still is a Birther.
Judy is a cruel hypocrite, an influential angry person. She actually is taking out her poor experiences as a child out on the children of Alaska. But ask any student of hers—they’ll tell you exactly what they thought of her
PS How did you forget this gem from Republicanville: https://mobile.twitter.com/awzurcher/status/755555292398624768 This is regular Judy’s regular attitude right here folks