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.”

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.

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