If the last few enrollment reports from the Kenai School District are any indication, correspondence and homeschooling appear to be the future of public education.

Earlier this month, the district reported that its overall student enrollment had plummeted to just 7,971 students. That represents a loss of more than 1,000 students over the past dozen years.

While most schools reported rapidly declining enrollments, the district public correspondence program continues to surge and now stands at 1,311 total students, more than double the size of the second largest school – Soldotna High.

In fact, Connections, which facilitates popular homeschool programming for area families, now accounts for nearly 17% of the total student population of the Kenai Borough.

Meanwhile, traditional brick and mortar schools like the three largest high schools in Homer, Kenai and Soldotna are in the midst of a massive decline. Combined, these three schools missed their latest spring enrollment projections by a total of 123 students.

Overall, the spring enrollment report was 174 students below projection.

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