Lon Garrison, who serves as executive director of the influential Alaska Association of School Boards (AASB), thinks Alaska’s nearly 24,000 correspondence students require more state oversight, testing and tracking.
In a recent column sent to AASB followers, Garrison suggested that policymakers should carefully scrutinize the state’s popular and expanding correspondence programs. He noted that they have evolved from a means of providing public education to remote, inaccessible areas of Alaska to school-choice options that now threaten to undermine the established model of government schooling.
The AASB is an influential organization that trains school board members, advocates for educational spending bills and lobbies lawmakers. As head of the organization, Garrison claimed his interest in exploring correspondence education is simply to “understand” the evolution and purpose of this model.
The bulk of his March 31 column, however, expresses concerns about how correspondence education negatively affects the old brick-and-mortar model across the state.
Over the past few years, thousands of children have left traditional government schools in favor of home-based education through correspondence study. This has resulted in decreased revenue for school districts that do not offer competitive or desirable correspondence programs, as students can enroll in programs outside their districts.
Now that students are no longer bound to a state-directed model of correspondence education, Garrison said it has become difficult to track their academic progress.
“Policy decisions in this area do not affect a single segment of the system – they affect all of us,” Garrison opined. “As Executive Director, it is essential for me and for our members to understand both the magnitude of correspondence education and the potential effects policy changes may have on students enrolled in these programs, as well as those attending neighborhood, village, and charter schools. We cannot afford to turn against ourselves.”
Many families, though, have deliberately rejected the old public school model, which has resulted in roughly 70% of students failing to master basic reading and math skills. In fact, Alaska students are chronically among the worst performing in the nation.
Under the current correspondence system, parents have freedom to choose innovative curriculum that is aligned with their values and the interests of their children. This was not always the case, as Garrison points out.
“It was a centralized, state-run system designed to ensure access, not to offer alternatives,” he wrote, adding that earlier versions were “highly structured, relatively demanding, and required regular assessments.” (emphasis in original)
Garrison accurately notes that broader homeschooling movements have gained traction nationally and across Alaska, with more families wanting “greater flexibility in how their children were educated.”
But he then emphasized that correspondence students are technically under state control, as their education is publicly funded.
“While parents may serve as the primary instructors, the program itself remains part of the public education system,” he highlighted. “A homeschool student may choose to enroll in a correspondence program, but doing so places that student within the public system.”
Garrison failed to mention that many parents opt out of the government assessments because their children often use an entirely different curriculum from public schools.
Garrison noted that changes in correspondence education, which now allow families to purchase curriculum, materials, and educational services with state allotments, have fundamentally transformed this program.
Now that students are no longer bound to a state-directed model of correspondence education, Garrison said it has become difficult to track their academic progress. He called this a “new set of challenges.”
“The original correspondence system operated under a more uniform structure with clearer expectations for curriculum and participation in assessments,” he said. “Today’s individualized model, while responsive to family needs, makes it difficult to ensure consistency across programs.”
Garrison complained that correspondence students often opt out of statewide assessments, thereby limiting the government’s ability to evaluate their progress.
“Without consistent assessment data, it becomes increasingly difficult to answer basic questions about how students are performing and which practices are most effective,” he said. “These are not abstract concerns; they are central to the responsibility of school boards to ensure that every student receives a high-quality public education.”
Many of Garrison’s concerns are echoed by powerful teacher unions that oppose school choice options, especially when they lead to families rejecting the local school district in favor of areas that provide more freedoms.
Garrison failed to mention that many parents opt out of the government assessments because their children often use an entirely different curriculum from public schools, which means students are not always covering the same material on the same schedule. Additionally, all parents have the right to decline assessments for their kids.
He then claimed that correspondence students have a “significantly lower” graduation rate than their standard public school counterparts. Again, Garrison failed to mention that many of these correspondence students do, in fact, graduate but do so with degrees from alternative homeschool programs.
Garrison concluded by emphasizing the need to ensure that correspondence education does not increase division and “create fractures within our system.”
Garrison claimed the lack of graduation data “raises important questions about student outcomes and the supports necessary to ensure success.”
He next took aim at the fact that students who live in one district can opt to enroll in a program from another district. This is particularly popular in areas where school districts limit or hinder home-education options.
Districts that embrace school choice and parent-directed education, however, often reap the rewards of attracting students from other areas.
Garrison characterized this as a “structural challenge” within the school funding system.
“When students enroll in programs operated by districts outside their home community, the associated funding follows the student,” he said. “This can create financial strain for local districts experiencing enrollment declines, while districts operating large statewide programs have seen substantial growth. Research has noted that correspondence programs have increasingly drawn students from urban areas, reflecting a shift away from their original purpose of serving remote communities. This dynamic has changed the landscape of public education in Alaska and requires thoughtful consideration to ensure that the system remains equitable and sustainable for all districts.”
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Many of Garrison’s concerns are echoed by powerful teacher unions that oppose school choice options, especially when they lead to families rejecting the local school district in favor of areas that provide more freedoms.
While Garrison attempted to strike a neutral tone, his column claims that the funding issue requires the state to “reassess how these programs are structured, funded, and evaluated.”
“We must ensure that accountability systems reflect the realities of today’s correspondence model, and that funding mechanisms do not unintentionally disadvantage some districts while benefiting others,” he argued.
Garrison concluded by emphasizing the need to ensure that correspondence education does not increase division and “create fractures within our system.”
For many homeschool families, these “fractures” are seen as a welcome development that has resulted in myriad and ever-increasing alternatives to failing public schools.
33 Comments
It would seem as if Lon Garrison wants to chain students to their ZIP code schools regardless of how mediocre they are. Ankle bracelets might be a good way to do just that. BTW, the Association of Alaska School Boards is supported by local taxpayers and State funding. According to the last AASB tax return, the organization received $631,484 from YOUR local school districts as membership dues. That is your money! The AASB also received $7,761,974 from government grants during that same year. Here is a link to that article: https://alaskawatchman.com/2026/04/13/opinion-alaskas-education-industry-uses-your-money-to-control-the-legislature/
Correspondence study threatens to “undermine the established model of government schooling.” As a successful CCS grad, when spent the first four months after graduation serving as a Senate page at age 17, this presents a problem exactly how?
“When students enroll in programs operated by districts outside their home community, the associated funding follows the student,” Garrison said.
Yeah. That’s the whole point. The money SHOULD follow the student. Follow the student all the way to the BEST educational option FOR THE STUDENT. Not the best option for the education unions and their lackeys. If ‘public schools’ can’t make it in a freely competitive education marketplace (ie without the force of government bought and paid for and beholden to the status quo ‘public education’ industry) then that ‘public school’ model needs to die out vis a vis economics definition of creative destruction.
Amen, they just want control over your kids. So your kids will become a rainbow flag person, Disgusting.
There’s so many awesome choices out there for your kids to learn from and many Christian base programs too
Listen they can’t turn kids gay they are born gay and Protestant heresy (you aren’t a Christian if you aren’t Catholic by the way.)is the reason your failure to grasp basic concepts isn’t surprising. Homosexuality is inborn we are happy with someone of the same sex and the idea of being with opposite sex is revolting,you don’t have the right to demand they marry a woman and have kids. You aren’t entitled to grandchildren and can’t conversion therapy doesn’t work results in misery trama, confusion,adultery is immoral and it should be banned. And you aren’t entitled to block them from dating because I got around that as a kid and my mom put up every barrier you can imagine. And so did one of my boyfriends moms, but that didn’t stop us. Unfortunately she brainwashed him put him on steroids. You know why because her false religion told her it was ok and that homosexuality wasn’t inborn. So called Bible Baptist by the way approved it, they ought to be investigated as domestic terrorists. Considering their sect is banned in countries for destroying orthodox and Catholic Churches and relics.as well as the extreme so called treatments they have endorsed lord knows what’s done in private.
Alex is trying to say that he/she desperately hopes that saving children from the ravages of groomer peducators and indoctrination will not succeed since it is pointless – therefore stop trying to oppose the sexually deviant cult of which he/she is clearly a PROUD member.
Homeschoolers fall into two categories. Faith based homeschoolers or Rainbow flag folks. Seems that those two are at odds with each other within the homeschooling network. This has nothing to do with Anchorage Public schools. They aren’t failing. Homeschoolers are failing and the cracks are starting to show by the fighting and casting blame on someone or something else.
I would agree with him in part. Home schoolers do need more oversight. I know of far too many homeschoolers, both in Alaska and other States, where students are registered but never open a book or connect on line. There needs to be a method of holding parents accountable. Telling your child to study and then going off to work with the TV and internet accessable is not accountability
Those students and families you are referring to by your description are not homeschoolers. They are drop outs or lazy parents. In the over ten years we have homeschooled 2020-2021 was the only time we met that category of people calling themselves homeschoolers. It sounds like you have yet to meet a real homeschooling family- who are all required to provide grades, student work samples, receipts connecting to curricula, and proof of curriculum which adheres to our state and National standards. Homeschoolers are THE largest group of students and families being policed. If they are taking their state funding /allotment (which is a fraction of a public schoolers allotment) they are heavily policed. Please get your facts straight.
Since you claim to know of so many true cases of this occurring … list their names. Otherwise, it’s baseless assertion intended to deceive easily manipulated persons – who most likely were government school indoctrinated and possess not the ability to formulate thoughts on their own.
How about provide a list? “far too many” is quite a number. The best way to hold parents accountable would be for you to provide a list so we could all call them out… maybe even get the authorities involved. Isn’t that what you’re advocating for?
Wow, there is considerable lack of knowledge with how homeschooling actually works.
The correspondence programs are producing better results than the brick and mortar system. Plain and simple.
The reason this has become such a large trend in Alaska and across the country is because the existing government run system is failing our children. The oversight needs to be exerted over the school board.
Do you realize how many kids in 5th grade do not even know where Europe is on a map? Or tell uou a very specific country, like Congo? Test kids for yourself.
That is why tens of thousands of parents are pulling their children from a broken and failing system. Its NOT easier, trust me. It is a far more difficult lifestyle. But the results speak for themselves.
We’re doing a better job, both with monetary management of state funds and with academic results. Not to mention real life skills once and respectful young people. Our children enter the work force with greater success and, generally, more to offer… yes, there are outliers who are lazy. Just like with anything.
The people are clearly speaking with their actions and revealing the state officials’ report card.
We homeschooled K-12 and all those years we never met any families not diligently educating their kids, and we were highly involved in everything – sports, clubs, lessons, coops, teams, classes. There are far fewer home educating families dropping the ball than there are brick and mortar school families dropping the ball. As for the doing nothing – that would more likely be child neglect not homeschooling.
When I had to deal with Lon Garrison, he and his agency at AASB were mostly concerned with helping ASD steal nearly $2M in student designated funds from Family Partnership Charter School by undermining the governance of the board for that school. It’s all recorded and Lon is part of it, but the general public seems content to believe the lies. From my first-hand dealings with them, AASB is the organization that needs oversight and accountability for what they have done to damage options for families to educate their children. I agree completely with Joel and welcome any fractures in the public education system that develop because people successfully homeschool their children. Funding should follow the student. Failing districts should terminate the entire administration and start over. Third party meddlers like AASB fall in the category of fraud, waste and abuse. If only legislators cared about students and not just teacher unions…..
Where does Lon Garrison’s authority come from? Which state institution is he a part of? Is he appointed by the governor or is he some freeloader who thinks he has authority, Doesn’t the state already have a governor-appointed board of Education with authority in this area?
Garrison is right. We need to account for these kids. If they’re not receiving the “high quality public education” he speaks of, they certainly won’t grow up to patronize Planned Parenthood, Identity, Inc, Mad Myrna’s, and the pot shops that now litter every street corner all over the state. They also won’t register Democrat, pierce their faces, invest in monthly purchases of blue hair dye and blow-up unicorns for their No Kings rallies. We can’t have that. Liberal causes will die our entirely if we don’t keep our hands on those kids!
Sorry, no. What makes this clown believe he owns our kids? And what does he mean they “don’t graduate?” I’m sure all of them do, even if they don’t report it to him. It is really none of his business, at all.
Would that he would be as concerned over the less than mediocre results that the public education system in Alaska produces.
Exactly!
By the way, the libs are on the move in other states too, trying to eradicate highly successful charter schools, private schools, and voucher programs: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2026/04/14/dems-back-school-funding-lawsuit-voucher-parents-seek-to-join-defendants/89558862007/
“Homeschoolers need more oversight” Liberal meaning they are making the public school system look ignorant. Homeschoolers don’t need more oversight they are doing what the public school system has failed to do since the DOE was thrust upon the American Taxpayer as a defunct organization. The education system has steadily gone downhill since DOE. Main purpose was to steer the education system to what is is today a disgrace to the American Dream. Unions should have no say in the education that is a parent responsibility.
Parental rights are the most important piece of this dialogue. If a parent does not have the right to choose what is best for their child and student, anything else doesn’t matter. It should not matter whether a student is educated at home, in public school, at a private school or even a hybrid of all the above. As long as parents and families are making the best choice for their families and children, that should be the priority. Public school Union members are attacking children and families who are dual enrolled- which is wrong and is the wrong target. The money should follow the child/family… and not different money. The same funding that follows a public school child should follow a private school child, should follow a homeschool child, should follow a dual enrollment child, etc.
Families and parents should be able to opt out of testing if they desire. Some families opt out of testing for valid reasons. Public school families have fallen into the trap of thinking their students need to be tested in a very specific way, which has been proven not to be an effective method of determining mastery of a discipline. Teaching children and students is entirely more essential than testing those children/students. If the focus for all parties was to educate children and students, there would be no disagreement. You can test and benchmark that differently to prove mastery in a multitude of ways- not just some MAPS test the government system said was the only way to measure intelligence and mastery.
It is a fabrication to say that correspondence and homeschool families are not being policed and are using funds Willy Nilly- any REAL homeschool family does have standards and hoops to jump through to meet certain criteria and standards which are often more rigorous than any public school teacher is being required to meet or prove. It a total lie made up by someone who has no experience or authority in homeschool education to say that correspondence and homeschool families are doing whatever they want, without any standards. If they are funded homeschool families, receiving state education allotments, they are required to prove (amply) with receipts, links to subject and curriculum, validity of curriculum, and so on and so forth. The only homeschool and correspondence families who are doing whatever they want without any policing from the state are ones who don’t take or receive an allotment or funding from
Anyone but themselves. Please do not perpetuate the lies of puppets. Educate yourselves.
It should be noted here, if you truly are a proponent of parental rights, that there’s nothing inherently wrong with homeschooling in the manner you describe:
“The only homeschool and correspondence families who are doing whatever they want without any policing from the state are ones who don’t take or receive an allotment or funding from Anyone but themselves.”
Just because we’re not jumping through hoops to prove to the state that our kids are at grade level does not mean that we’re not educating them. The State May have a vested interest in ensuring the existence of solid educational institutions within its perimeter, but parental rights ensure that families can choose to avail themselves of those institutions, or not.
Agreed. There is no problem with homeschooling your children and taking zero money from the state to do so. Also no problem with not belonging to a program. That wasn’t remotely my point, but I should have been more clear about that. I apologize that I was not clear about that. Let me clarify here: if you don’t take any funding and you don’t belong to any homeschool
Program- more power to you! That’s called “going rogue” in homeschool family slang. We love our rogue counterparts and wish we could go rogue ourselves. Our family currently prefers to be connected to a program for things like transcript, document and curriculum borrowing, for things like a resource library and useful opinions from an advisor. It’s also nice to have a state approved entity to recognize and accredit all of the courses our children have taken and earned the grade for instead of simply graduating from the school of Mom and Pop. Mostly we believe this is because we pay a high amount in taxes – therefore that allotment we receive is more like a tax refund by participating in that manner. If you live in a low tax borough, go rogue and you probably won’t regret it.
Anything that is faith based we pay for out of pocket- which is a LOT. Anything that is denied by the homeschool Program, which also amounts to a lot – we pay for out pocket because we still homeschool our way. To be clear: all homeschool families pay for everything out of pocket. Some of which can be later reimbursed. Many of us wish to go rogue in our homeschooling but financially need the few thousand dollars the state provides for some of our children to supplement what we are already paying.
The real point and argument isn’t between homeschoolers and public schoolers or even program homeschoolers and rogue homeschoolers. The largest issues (like you so kindly pointed out) are parental rights and money following the student. If those rights and opportunities don’t exist any longer, in either platform for learning, then we’ve all amounted to a bunch of clown robots. The other point to make here is that a state funded homeschoolers allotment amounts to about $2000 currently (differs from program to program). The state doesn’t write families a check for this. It goes into their state approved program bank account and a family Must jump through all the program and state required hoops to get any piece of that money reimbursed to them with proof of receipts and curriculum- which all have a lot of specific requirements as well. The rest of the SBA goes to the school district where that child is enrolled as a homeschooler. The lie being perpetuated that homeschoolers are stealing state funding is unequivocally ignorant and the people making that statement over and over again clearly don’t know how any of it works and are likely keyboard crazies. Look into how much a school district earns and spends for every public school student and then compare that with their results with student outcomes on mastery of a subject. The real issue, outside of the obvious parental rights issue, is that every student should have access to the same funding no matter the borough, district, program or choice to go rogue.
It’s not a very realistic nor inexpensive plan from a board President. Focus on what they can do and that’s correcting the public schools
Correcting the ‘public schools’ would be like trying to keep the Titanic from sinking after it already struck the iceberg. Sure, the inevitable can be delayed by throwing ever more money at a broken and sinking educational model, but again that is merely delaying the inevitable. The ‘public schools’ ship is still going to sink. So why waste all those funds? Better to let it sink than waste all that money dragging it out.
One more thing I keep reminding Homeschool families that remaining in a public school district to receive taxpayer homeschool allotments means you are Arcturus mercy of the government.
These lawmakers can choose to stop providing the allotments on any year, control how its spend and which curriculums are purchased, and enforce any regulations because its the taxpayer money and does not belong to the parent. If you want greater control without government always there in the wings monitoring Then use your own money.
Lon must be getting a lot of pressure from the groomer community of peducators that their readily available supply of victims are not being fed through the torture chambers of radical indoctrination and deviant sex abuse at the hands of those who claim to be providing them preparation and knowledge. Quite frankly he should stick to what he knows …. nothing.
If Lon Garrison meant to include madrasas in “more state oversight, testing and tracking”, maybe he has a point.
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What say yoyu, Lon?
Homeschool Mama,
I agree with you (I just don’t have the option to post this comment as a reply to your reply to my reply!)
Another interesting fact to consider is how much money could be saved annually by the state if more if not all of her students switched to the $4,000 allotment model instead of the $20,000+ per year we spend on each kid in public school, AND the outcomes are better for the students and the state!
I would think Mr. Garrison would be more appreciative of home-schooled children.
They lower the Teacher/Student ratios! (What’s his job even FOR? He sounds like a HUGE waste to $$ to me!)
I think the homeschoolers are a wee bit too defensive here. Almost like they are trying to hide something.
Losing traction trolling MustRead?
My children are MY responsibility. The only reason for superintendants to act like they have the authority in this area is because our forefathers simply assumed children were the responsibility of their parents and didn’t even imagine an eleventh amendment was necessary. Don’t mess with Mama Bears.