Homeschoolers Outperform Public Schools

So declare homeschooling unconstitutional?

That appears to be what might be happening here in Alaska as thousands of Alaska students face educational uncertainty after a court decision issued a couple of weeks ago upending the state’s long-standing correspondence schools.

Pioneers of Homeschooling

Homeschooling in Alaska goes back to before Statehood. Because the vast wilderness area is sparsely populated, Alaskans have always homeschooled their kids. Long before homeschooling and correspondence became a national movement, Alaskans were doing it by necessity. When it takes an airplane ride to get to the nearest school, you learn to read, write, etc., at the kitchen table.

Bent over a Barrel

Because of this long-standing tradition and liberal state support, about one-third of Alaskan students are homeschooled. But Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman recently ruled key statutes governing the correspondence programs violate a constitutional prohibition on the use of public funds for private or religious institutions.

Since conservative Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy appointed Zeman to the bench in 2020, even plaintiffs were surprised at his sweeping decision in striking down two statutes authored by Dunleavy when he was a state senator in 2013.

Historic Change

For a decade, the statutes allowed parents to receive direct cash payments to use for funding their children’s education, including for paying private and religious vendors. Supposedly, although I’ve never met a “homeschool parent” who did this (and I know a lot of homeschool parents), the money — up to $4,500 per student — has been used directly to cover tuition at private schools, in some instances. What I have seen is parents paying for piano lessons, gym memberships, ballet school, and foreign language lessons, as well as tutoring in subjects the parents are themselves weak in.

The public schools provide many of these perks for “free” as part of the curriculum. Of course, the kids don’t learn to read and write, but they get these extras for “free” so sign ‘em up.

Reading, writing and arithmatic is so overrated.

Zeman struck down the statues in their entirety, leaving lawmakers, school administrators, parents and students to wonder about the future of Alaska’s correspondence programs.

In a social media post on Saturday, Dunleavy said Zeman’s ruling could mean “much if not all the correspondence homeschool education that we do in Alaska may be unconstitutional.” He said his administration planned to request a stay (a temporary pause in the implementation of the decision) and will file an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court.

The ruling came in a case filed by Alaska parents and teachers, and funded by NEA-Alaska, the largest teacher union in the state. The plaintiffs asked the court to stay the effects of the judge’s order until the end of June, giving students time to finish the school year as planned and giving lawmakers time to consider whether to implement new legislation that would allow correspondence programs to continue operating in some capacity.

Tom Klaameyer, president of NEA-Alaska, said Monday that the union supported the short-term stay, adding he was “surprised at how broad the ruling was” but pleased by the court striking down what he called “a backdoor voucher program.”

“It is unconventional for prevailing parties to seek a stay of ruling in which they prevailed,” wrote attorney Scott Kendall, representing the plaintiffs, in a court filing. “However, plaintiffs do not wish to cause any undue hardship or disruption resulting from the timing of the order.”

The plaintiffs said they would oppose any attempt to delay the implementation of the decision beyond the end of the current fiscal year, which could be requested by the state or by a group of parents who intervened in the case.

“Now that these statutes are known to be defective, allowing additional unconstitutional spending to occur under them beyond June 30, 2024 would compound those violations and continue unlawful expenditures of public funds in amounts in the millions,” Kendall wrote in the filing.

Education Commissioner Deena Bishop wrote in a letter to district superintendents on Monday that the department intends “to take every action possible to protect this public school option for all correspondence students currently enrolled in the state.”

Homeschooling is Underfunded As Is

Alaska spends over $18,000 a year per public school student. Under existing state law, districts are allotted 90% of the Base Student Allocation, or around $5,360, for every student enrolled in a correspondence program. Since it costs the State of Alaska significantly less to homeschool a student than to have them in the public school system, a certain percentage (typically 50%) is then allotted for students directly to spend on educational expenses as the parents see fit. The remainder is used to cover the operational costs of the program, including paying support teachers and staff.

Families immediately wondered not only whether they could continue to spend their cash allotments, but whether their programs could continue to operate as they had known them. The statutes struck down by the court also included a framework known as Individual Learning Plans, or ILPs, used by every correspondence program to define a student’s course of study.

In other words, this ruling could render homeschool programs unworkable in the State of Alaska, where a lot of people don’t live anywhere near a school and a great deal more parents want nothing to do with the public school system. Alaska currently ranks 47th in the nation in public school performance while our homeschool (and private school) populations typically are the top performers in the SAT and ACT tests statewide.

Reaction Around the State

In the Matansuka-Susitna Borough School District, where about 18% of students are enrolled in correspondence programs, Assistant Superintendent Katherine Gardner said the district is working with an attorney and the state to learn how the decision impacts its operations.

Jason Johnson, superintendent of the Galena City School District, which houses IDEA, a correspondence program with more than 7,000 students statewide, wrote to homeschool familes that “IDEA remains confident in Alaska’s support for the homeschooling model…. Expect to continue to rely on our team to support you as we continue partnering in the education of your child.”

Use of Public Funds

Alaska’s state constitution was written in 1958 and has a lot of progressive elements to it. Among these is a noted hostility toward the private sector.

Jenn Griffis, a parent of three children enrolled in IDEA, said she has questions about the ruling’s impact on correspondence programs “beyond just the allotment.”

Griffis’ children’s allotments go to purchasing things like math curricula, writing courses, literature courses, piano lessons and field trips. All the curricula her children use are on a list approved by IDEA.

“The idea of utilizing these funds to pay for private school tuition did not even cross my mind,” said Griffis. “I always viewed this as a use of public funds.”

Griffis rejects sending her children to a brick-and-mortar public school as an alternative, but, “I have a strong sense that there are families that are definitely looking at weighing those options.”

Dean O’Dell, Director of IDEA, said by email that around 2.9% of IDEA’s students take one or more private school classes, “all of which meet the criteria of being fully non-sectarian in both materials and instruction.” So instead of finding a learning pod that takes a few students who want to learn Spanish, parents can enroll their student in a private school’s Spanish program. They don’t get all or even most of their education from the private school. They take a specific course.

Rep. Justin Ruffridge, a Soldotna Republican who co-chairs the House Education Committee, is one of many lawmakers who have enrolled their children in correspondence programs. His two kids currently attend a private Christian school in Kenai. They are also enrolled in a correspondence program. Ruffridge said he does not use the allotment to cover tuition costs, but he uses it to pay for his son’s music lessons and his daughter’s dance lessons.

Rep. Will Stapp, a Fairbanks Republican, also said he uses an allotment through IDEA to cover the cost of dance lessons for his 6-year-old daughter. Rep. Sarah Vance, a Homer Republican, said she also has used correspondence allotments to cover the cost of dance and music lessons for her children — three of whom are currently enrolled in correspondence programs.

“I think the majority of correspondence programs use those allotments well and constitutionally for things that are not religious or private institutions,” said Ruffridge. He added there were “some concerning components” that “probably should be addressed.”

I would agree that homeschooling allotments are not meant to pay for private tuition, but I can say from personal experience that it is very difficult to pay both property taxes (75% of which goes to public school education) and private school tuition to assure my children got an actual education. It was a choice my husband and I made that we eventually couldn’t afford. We got them through elementary school in quality schools and then had to rely on the failing public highschools to finish their educations. When we were doing that, the allotment wasn’t available to any Alaskans.

House Speaker Cathy Tilton, a Wasilla Republican, said that addressing the uncertainty created by the court ruling would be “a top priority” for the House Majority. Fewer than five weeks remain in the current legislative session.

According to Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer and chair of the judiciary committee, on the Michael Dukes Show as of Monday, April 22, the Alaska State House is proposing a constitutional amendment, House Joint Resolution 28. Our Legislature usually moves at the speed of molasses in January, but the resolution is scheduled for hearings Wednesday and Friday next week in the House Judiciary Committee.

If approved by two-thirds of the House, two-thirds of the Senate and at least 51% of Alaska voters this fall, HJR 28 would remove the part of Article VII, Section 1, that says, “no money shall be paid from public funds for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.”

That clause was specifically flagged by Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman when he struck down the law dealing with payments to the parents of children in the state’s correspondence programs. 

HJR 28 also proposes to change Article IX, Section 6, which prohibits spending public money except for public purposes. The proposed amendment would add a clause saying that the section doesn’t prevent payments “for the direct educational benefit of students as provided by law.”

Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River and a member of the judiciary committee, said a public vote — required of any Alaska constitutional amendment — would empower voters and “ensures that all Alaskans have a voice in shaping the future of education in Alaska.”

While large numbers of state legislators and Gov. Mike Dunleavy expressed alarm about the legal decision on correspondence programs, many legislators say they intend to postpone action until after the Alaska Supreme Court addresses the topic.

Coalition government raises its ugly head again. The Democrats in charge of the supermajority caucus (which is numerically a Republican majority) in the Alaska Senate said they oppose supporting a constitutional amendment eliminating the prohibition on public funds for private schools.

But which private schools? Are we talking about Fairhill Christian School, Immaculate Conception High School (which has the highest graduating grades in the state) or Dance Theater Fairbanks, or a friend’s learning pod that provides Spanish instruction to homeschool students?

Alaska has refused to enact a voucher program to give families educational choice even as the performance of our public schools has sunk lower and lower. Homeschooling is how we get around that, but it’s not an easy choice. It is a financial hardship to have one parent leave the workforce to make this happen.

Sen. Jesse Kiehl, a Juneau Democrat who also enrolled his children in correspondence programs, points to the 2014 change in law that incorporated the controversial statutes. Prior to that, correspondence programs provided students an annual allotment that could be used for things like a laptop or curriculum, but there were limits on permissible expenses.

Kiehl doesn’t see the new restrictions as an end to correspondence programs, even without legislative action.

“Worst case scenario, they could go back to the way it was done before the 2014 law,” said Kiehl. That would mean correspondence students could carry on purchasing curriculum from approved vendors, as long as they fall within the confines of the constitutional prohibition on the use of public funds at private or religious institutions.

But again, the public school correspondence curriculum materials have many of the same failings as the public schools themselves, which is why parents choose to homeschool and why they seek additional materials. They want their kids to be well-educated and the public schools refuse to provide that.

Kiehl, of course, wants to see an increase for public education overall, ignoring the fact Alaska already spends more per student than any other state in the union — to rank 47th in the nation. There are some cynical Alaskans, myself included, who believe Zeman ruled this way because Scott Kendall wants the Legislature to refocus on education rather than a balanced budget.

“In the wake of [Zeman’s] decision and the many crises that continue to face our schools, the legislature must quickly act to provide adequate funding for our schools, reinstate a fair and competitive retirement for our educators, and provide certainty for students in correspondence programs,” said Minority Leader Rep. Calvin Schrage, an Anchorage independent (which is another way to say “Democrat who doesn’t want the constituents to know he’s a Democrat”).

Uh? So, message received should be:

It doesn’t matter that we’re running out of money and that we already spend way more on education than any other state. We’re going to take away your only viable alternative if you’re not willing to tax yourselves to increase an already blotted funding program, only a tiny portion of which goes to homeschooling. Don’t like that? Well, we’re just going to take away that tiny bit of funding so you’ll like what we want more.

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Lela Markham is an Alaska-based novelist and commentator who graduated from Alaska’s public school back when Alaska students were in the top 10% of scores on the SAT and ACT. Thus, she thinks we should concentrate on what is actually producing good outcomes — which is homeschooling & private education. If the public schools actually had to compete against competant schools, they might start to produce adequate outcomes. And if they don’t — Who needs them?