Gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallot has been touring the state since he announced his run for governor last October.
Along the way Mallot stopped by Soldotna’s River City Books in January and says he felt positive about meeting locals and hearing their thoughts.
Mallot: “People wanted to know about my views on education, they talked about their concerns about Alaska’s revenue shortfalls that are anticipated in coming years. But there was a lot of optimism, people telling me about what was going on on the Kenai by way of oil exploration and fisheries development and certainly people were concerned about the salmon allocation issue but I sensed a lot of optimism too.”
Earlier this week Mallot released a statement about his opposition to the voucher program being proposed for Alaskan schools. We spoke with him a little more about why he is against the idea.
Mallot: “Public dollars should be spent on public education, particularly now where Alaska’s educational system is severely underfunded and where we have a long way to go to really continue to build the kind of world class and high quality education system that we need in our state.”
He added that he does not support the amendment to the Alaska constitution either.