Alaska’s second-largest school district is looking to officially oppose a proposed bill in the State Senate, which critics say will divert funds from popular homeschooling and charter schools, in order to funnel additional money into shrinking traditional state schools.
On March 18, the Mat-Su School Board introduced a resolution against Senate Bill 277, which is being pushed by Democrat legislators in the Senate Education Committee.
The Mat-Su resolution, which won’t be voted on until the April 1 meeting, begins by affirming that Alaska has a long-standing tradition of affirming a parent’s right to direct the education of their child, including choosing correspondence programs without unnecessary administrative barriers or compulsory enrollment in a local school district.
The resolution takes issue with proposed changes in SB 277 that would “impose new financial and administrative burdens on families participating in correspondence programs, appearing to remove parents from their present role as primary decision-makers in their children’s education.”
It also notes that SB 277 increases a school district’s ability to divert funds away from charter schools, while placing “severe restrictions” on homeschool students’ ability to utilize funding for special education services, in-person classes, career and vocational courses, or extracurricular activities, thereby isolating correspondence students and denying vulnerable students essential support.”
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The resolution also criticizes the proposed bill’s attempt to divert funding away from the district that a student chooses to enroll in and to send that money to the district where the child resides, regardless of whether they receive educational services there.
“Under this model, families may be required to enroll in a district that does not directly provide instructional services, teachers, or resources, raising serious questions about the justification for administrative overhead charges and effectively forcing districts to dismantle their statewide correspondence offerings,” the proposed resolution states.
The resolution concludes by urging lawmakers to protect and affirm the rights of parents to direct their children’s education without unnecessary requirements, allow funding to follow the student, ensure geographical freedom and educational choice, and to preserve Alaska’s long-standing correspondence education tradition.
TAKING ACTION
— Click here to read SB 277.
— To contact members of the Senate Education Committee, click here.
4 Comments
Kudos to Matsu School District !!
Thank you for your hard work at academic accountability, fiscal responsibility and for championing choice in education. We are proud to support you!
If people are going to criticize this bill, they should criticize the real text of the bill, not a caricature of it. SB 277 does not simply “threaten homeschooling” or just “funnel money” away from correspondence students. In fact, one of the bill’s biggest changes is that it moves correspondence funding from 90% to 100%, which is plainly more favorable to correspondence programs on its face.
Where critics have a better point is in the details. The bill appears to change how some statewide correspondence students are counted for funding purposes, and that could hurt statewide programs by shifting where those student numbers are booked. It also increases the amount a district may retain from charter schools for administrative costs, and that deserves scrutiny. Those are fair criticisms.
But saying the bill flatly strips homeschool students of services or destroys parental choice goes too far. The bill seems to restrict what can be included in certain administrative fees. That may create practical problems, but that is not the same thing as banning students from receiving those services.
So the real debate should be honest:
Does SB 277 help traditional public schools while also creating new problems for correspondence and charter families? Maybe.
Does it justify concern about funding shifts and bureaucracy? Yes.
But does the article fairly describe the bill as written? Not really.
Alaskans deserve a fact-based debate, especially on education. If this bill is bad, make the case on the actual language—not slogans.
Democrats are reading the writing on the wall
The passage of this bill will likely sink any chance electing a Democrat Governor
Alaskans government dependent they don’t know any other way to live yet without government money
School choice is paramount to good thinking and development of a family. Hope the hard work of this group will take center stage to thinking. When you take a look at the numbers of students and then the issues, no one is telling about funding of the Alaska Natives schools through Bureau of Indian Affairs or giving each student in the towns with Native students a distinction of costs that only Bureau of Indian Affairs is suppose to fund according to the New Secretary of Education and her budget for the education budget in the Big Beautiful Bill. In fact the education committee has failde to ask aboiut that and doesn’t have the time when I asked about the budget issue from the state coffers. So, the wording an the budget looks different when a person puts the correct budget to the town referred too in the list of towns for budget numbers of students and dollars to consider. Also, programs and problems related to this bill. It is a gross mess and one that should be shelved or properly researched and correct data and information stated in it. What a waste of time and total lack of good research for a budget issue.