Homeschool and parental rights advocates are sounding the alarm over a proposed resolution by the Fairbanks Borough Assembly that urges the State Legislature to require homeschool and correspondence students to take government-run academic tests in order to receive state allotments for schooling.

The proposal by left-leaning Assemblyman Scott Crass states: “Currently only 13% of homeschool students in Alaska participate in state assessments. To ensure equitable expectations for all Alaska students and strengthen accountability for public education resources, we support establishing clear testing expectations for homeschool programs. Incentivized participation in AK Star assessment by linking allotment eligibility to students taking AK Star (Alaska System of Academic Readiness).”

In introducing his amendment to the Assembly’s legislative priorities, Crass asserted that the few homeschool students who currently take state assessments are “not doing great.” He provided no evidence for this statement.

“We need to understand whether we are actually serving our students well,” he claimed during an Aug. 6 Assembly work session. “The issue is if the people they are graduating are actually proficient in, you know, mathematics at a 12^th grade level.”

Crass’ amendment to the draft resolution passed 7-1 with conservative-leaning Assemblyman Brett Rotermund voting no. The final version of the resolution is set for a vote at the Aug. 27 meeting.

While the resolution has no binding or immediate effect, it does urge state lawmakers to take up the issue in their upcoming legislative session, early next year.

Homeschool advocates have already begun pushing back, including former Fairbanks Assemblywoman Barbara Haney.

“Scott Crass has a proposed legislative priority that really hits hard at homeschool families,” Haney posted to Facebook recently. “Please write the assembly and tell them they are violating parental rights. Tests are to inform parents – homeschool parents know what their child knows – stop high-stakes testing of homeschool students as a borough priority.”

Conservative-leaning Assemblywoman Tammie Wilson is also asking homeschool families to weigh in before the Aug. 27 vote.

“Do you think testing should be tied to your homeschool allotment?,” she posted to Facebook. “Write the assembly at Assembly@fnsb.com and tell us what you think.”

Alaska Families for Education Freedom, an online school choice and parental rights group, responded to Crass’ proposal, claiming it is an attempt at “gaslighting” homeschoolers, while completely ignoring the chronic and well-documented failure to teach basic reading, writing and math in Alaska’s standard government-run schools.

Current state law allows any student, regardless of whether they are in state-funded homeschooling or standard brick-and-mortar schools, to opt out of state testing.

Participation rates in state assessments have been about 80% statewide and roughly 14% for correspondence students. Of the correspondence students who do participate, however, their test results are markedly higher than the state average.

In response to Crass’ mandate proposal, Alaska Families for Education Freedom noted, “For more than a decade, many Alaska school districts have ranked among the lowest percentiles on statewide assessments. Yet those results have not triggered the kind of funding consequences or any semblance of punitive accountability now being demanded by this actor.”

In fact, Alaska school districts with poor academic records continue to receive their full foundation formula funding from the state, along with additional grants, targeted resources, interventions, and other forms of state and federal support. Additionally, districts also receive full funding for their brick-and-mortar students who opt out of state tests.

Crass’ proposal makes no mention of this.

“In other words, poor performance (and not testing at all) within the traditional system is not treated as a reason to withdraw funding,” Alaska Families for Education Freedom notes. “It is frequently a reason to provide more funding.”

For years now, the vast majority of Alaska’s public school students have failed to achieve basic proficiency in reading and math. The latest test results show that 65-70% of public school students are failing in these categories.

At the behest of the teachers union and educational bureaucrats, left-wing lawmakers have roundly defeated all legislative proposals to hold schools accountable for failing to teach basic academics.

Alaska Families for Education Freedom questions why Crass is so intent on singling out homeschool students, which now make up 23% of all publicly-funded school students.

“If standardized testing is supposedly necessary to justify public education dollars, then apply that principle universally,” the group argues. “Do not single out one educational model while exempting the broader system from the same standard.”

The financial comparison between what correspondence students receive from the state compared to brick-and-mortar students “makes the argument for targeting correspondence programs even harder to defend,” the group noted.

The average correspondence allotment is around $2,700 per homeschool student. Overall, state expenditures on correspondence programs amount to a tiny fraction of Alaska’s $1.3 billion educational budget.

Given the growing popularity of correspondence and home education, the debate over whether to impose greater restrictions and mandates on homeschoolers will likely be revived in the upcoming Legislature.

TAKING ACTION

— Click here to contact members of the Fairbanks Assembly.

— Click here for information on how to participate in the Aug. 27 Fairbanks Assembly meeting, which starts at 6 p.m.

Click here to support Alaska Watchman reporting.