Better wear a thick mitten hot pad or you will most certainly blister your hand because the education issue continues to be an extremely fiery topic.
First, we sadly learned late last week that the released test scores indicate far too few of our students are attaining proficiency in the basic subjects in our public schools (but kudos to Mat-Su students who overall did well compared to others statewide!).
Second, the public correspondence school disruption is not yet put to rest. When there’s major disruption to the school option that nearly 1 in 5 children in Alaska have chosen, the dust does not settle quickly, nor should it. The extremely broad ruling striking down the allotment provision for public correspondence students by Superior Court Judge Zeman created chaos and NEA certainly has egg on its face, but with some patience we may find it to be a blessing in disguise.
To the homseschool parents out there, please know that this more than 100-year school option in Alaska is not going away. We will sort it out, and yours truly will do all I can. I have been in multiple conversations with multiple attorneys and legislators. I’ll do my best to give you the lay of the land based on what I know at this point.
The House has filed a constitutional amendment to address the current semi-Blaine amendment in our state constitution (public funds can’t directly benefit a private or religious educational institution). Please be aware, however, that the Senate Majority and House Minority have indicated they (in general) do not favor a constitutional amendment and support the existing language in our state constitution. It takes a two-thirds majority in the House and the Senate to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot before the voters; there are not currently the votes in the legislature to achieve that high bar. So at this moment in time, this option is blocked.
👉Here are my thoughts on the matter as I’ve contemplated the situation the past few days and posted on social media:
Millions of public dollars in Alaska have been and are going to higher ed Alaska student loans, performance scholarships, and student education grants where students can and often do choose to use them to pay for tuition at private and religious educational institutions.
And how about all the public dollars – millions – in our state going to private vocational educational institutions each year?
And what about the millions in public dollars the legislature appropriates each year to Headstart – yet another set of private educational institutions across the state?
What about the Anchorage School District spending public dollars sending students to the private educational institution, Sylvan Learning Institute, for tutoring?
And what about local public high schools across Alaska paying for courses such as those through BYU, a private and religious education institution – which some districts have been doing for years to supplement their course offerings?
I don’t see how you can, on one hand, allow millions of public dollars to flow each year to private and religious educational institutions through student loans, grants, scholarships, direct state appropriations, and school district contracts, and on the other hand, not allow public correspondence school parents/students to use their allotments for private and religious educational institutions.
The court would be hypocritical to not allow allotments to be used this way while allowing all these other uses.
If the court rules that the allotments are a direct benefit to the student and an indirect benefit to the private and religious educational institutions, then things will be settled, and we won’t have to eliminate all the items/programs I noted above and the correspondence program can continue with the allotment statutes restored.
If the court doesn’t rule this way and determines the allotments can’t be used for payment for classes at private or religious educational institutions, I believe we indeed will need a Constitutional amendment and voters will support one. Why? Because Alaskans won’t want to do away with all these other educational opportunities in addition to public correspondence homeschooling mentioned above that benefit neighborhood brick and mortar public school K-12 students, pre-K Headstart children, and Alaskan adults in higher ed schooling or vocational training.
We expect the State of Alaska to request a stay (suspension) today of the ruling, longer than what the plaintiffs requested (they only requested a stay through this current school year). The state’s request will likely be through next school year too so a final decision can be reached by the Alaska Supreme Court and the legislature can address any legislation that might be needed.
I will give you any updates I have tonight on my Monday Nite Live at 6pm (Facebook broadcast) but in the meantime I want to point you to DEED Commissioner Bishop’s letter here. I may also be participating in an upcoming panel on the topic in the next few days with attorneys who have in-depth experience on homeschool laws throughout the nation, including here in Alaska. Stay tuned on that front.
Update 2023-04-23!
The State of Alaska has responded to the Superior Court with a request to stay (suspend) the correspondence homeschool ruling until the appeal process moves forward and the Alaska Supreme Court has issued its final decision.
