Advocates of Alaska’s public homeschooling programs, which serve more than 23,000 students, are raising the alarm about Senate Bill 277. Introduced by the Democrat-controlled Senate Education Committee, the bill redirects critical funding away from innovative, parent-led education and toward traditional brick-and-mortar schools, thereby threatening school-choice programs that enable Alaska families to opt their children out of failing standard government schools.

SB 277 fundamentally alters how correspondence students are counted for state funding. Instead of the money following each student to the statewide correspondence program that they actually attend (such as IDEA, Raven and others), the proposed bill assigns those students to the school district where the family lives – specifically, schools with the lowest enrollment numbers in that district. This redirection strips resources away from successful statewide school choice programs and funnels money to standard schools, which many families have deliberately rejected.

“Correspondence programs like IDEA and Raven have empowered Alaska parents to tailor education to their children’s needs and reject centralized, Common Core-style standards with minimal bureaucracy,” said Barbara Haney, founder of Alaskans Against Common Core. “SB 277 dismantles the financial model that makes these programs possible.”

She added that families who choose flexibility and personalization are now being punished to prop up declining conventional schools.

“This is not education reform – it’s an attack on parental rights and another step toward the centralized control we have fought for over a decade,” Haney stated.

The bill also doubles the administrative fee districts can skim from charter school budgets, raising the cap from 4% to 8%. Many charter schools operate with homeschool-like flexibility and serve families seeking alternatives to standardized education. Less money reaching charter schools means fewer resources, larger classes, or program cuts.

While the bill includes a modest increase in the Base Student Allocation and allows students to keep curriculum materials when they leave a program, Haney maintains that these “minor concessions” do not offset the structural damage.

“The net effect is a clear shift away from Alaska’s nationally recognized model of educational freedom toward centralized, traditional schooling that limits parental authority,” she emphasized.

Alaskans Against Common Core has long warned against centralized education policies and the group is now calling on the Senate Education Committee to reject SB 277 in its current form.

TAKING ACTION

— Click here to read SB 277.

— SB 277 is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Education Committee on March 18, but comments will be limited to “invitation only.” To contact members of the committee, click here.

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