Many concerned Anchorage families are wondering what they can do after the Anchorage School District decided to severely restrict how residents utilize correspondence allotment funds for the upcoming academic year. In particular, school-choice advocates are upset that these funds can no longer be used to help pay for the education of students who are duel enrolled in the correspondence program and wish to use their allotments for full-time private schooling.
The reality is that families can simply ditch the Anchorage School District entirely, and enroll in any number of alternative statewide correspondence programs. On Monday, July 31, the Alaska Policy Forum will host a one-hour webinar to break down how families can utilize these other programs, which still allow students to use their annual allotments for full-time education in a private school.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
The webinar begins at 7 p.m. Presenters include Mat-Su Central Principal Stacey McIntosh and Raven Homeschool Office Director Kim Bergey.
“Anchorage families have many other options outside of ASD,” a notice for the event states. “Join Alaska Policy Forum for this one-hour webinar to learn about some of those options, important deadlines, and more.”
TAKE ACTION
— Click here to register for the webinar.
3 Comments
I hope during the webinar that the independent home education option will be discussed. In AK parents have amazing freedom to educate at home without reporting to any outside program. Sometimes families believe they NEED to register with a charter school to educate at home; this is not true.
I know someone who worked in one of the state correspondence schools. He said parents either excelled with excellent students or didn’t do a think. It was surprising how many students didn’t do any of the work.
I graduated from Centralized Correspondence Study in January 1988, serving as a page to the State Senate in Juneau. Over 25 years later, I went online on a whim and looked up CCS. I recall several other school districts hosting correspondence study, allowing enrollment from outside their district. In 1988, 840 students were enrolled statewide, with 80% of those coming from within the geographic boundaries of the Anchorage School District. At 10k per student per year, that’s around 6.5 million in appropriations that ASD could not grab. This was back in 1988, when 6.5 million was real money…