In the September 16 debate between the two candidates running to represent District 6 in the legislature, Brent Johnson from Clam Gulch made a number of controversial comments about public school education and homeschooling that merit further attention.
In the debate, Johnson said that despite last year’s passage of HB57, which increased the Base Student Allocation (BSA) significantly, the state must provide additional funds for schools and impose new taxes if necessary to do so. Johnson pointed out that it isn’t the amount of money allocated for each student that is the problem; it is the fact that Alaska has declining public school enrollment, partially caused by the increase in kids choosing homeschooling, which deprives public schools of funding.
In this case, Johnson is partially correct. Since 2015, the number of kids enrolled in public schools has declined, while enrollment in homeschooling has climbed from ~14,500 in 2015 to over 23,000 this year.
Johnson identifies homeschooling as a problem to be solved and then issued a vaguely worded promise to move those kids back into public schools as one solution. He used a couple of anecdotes to justify his proposed plan. First, he said that when his kids were young, his family tried homeschooling and also a local religious school in Clam Gulch. Their kids didn’t have success in either of those programs, so Johnson re-enrolled them back into public school. Johnson implied that because these options didn’t work for his children, these are not good options for educating any kids.
Johnson further stressed this point by relating a story he says a teacher told him. Saying that when homeschool kids do re-enroll in public school, they are far behind their peers, and the teachers have to work hard to get them caught back up. Interestingly, I have heard other liberals repeat the same story. Louise Stutes told that exact same tale when she met with voters back in July, and I also heard it at the city council candidates’ debate in Homer 1 year ago. This often-repeated fable sounds more like a liberal talking point devised by the teachers’ union than anything based on reality, and it is easy to prove.
There have been many studies conducted comparing homeschooling to public school, and they all show the same thing. Homeschooling gives better results. One famous study is by Lawrence Rudner at Arizona State University. He found, “The achievement test scores of homeschool students are exceptionally high, and 25% of homeschool students are enrolled one or more grades above their age-level public and private school peers.”
The reality is that homeschooled kids outperform public school students, and that is a big problem for liberal partisans who are more concerned about protecting the union dues paid to the NEA Alaska teachers’ union than they are about providing the best education for our kids. Johnson’s plan for education is to preserve the existing failing system no matter what it costs and despite the fact that an increasing number of parents are unhappy with it. The phrase throwing good money after bad comes to mind.
While we will always need public schools of some form in our communities, the state should acknowledge there is a reason for the growth in the homeschool and private school movements. There is a way that both systems of education can thrive.
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One example of this is being done right now at West Homer Elementary School. This public elementary school didn’t have enough kids enrolled to fill the building, so they have allowed a charter school to use the vacant classrooms in one wing. The charter school helps pay the expense of running the building and preserves the public-school option for parents desiring it for their kids. Unlike other school districts that are forced to close schools because of declining enrollment, West Homer Elementary remained open, and the charter school has a home; everybody wins.
Another example of thinking outside the box comes from the small community of Nikolaevsk, also on the Kenai Peninsula. Because of students shifting to homeschool, there weren’t enough public-school students in the community to keep the school open, forcing the school district to close it. Homeschool parents applied to take over the building, and it is now reopened as the Nikolaevsk Charter School. Both of these success stories are in House District 6, where Mr. Johnson is running for the Alaska House, so he should be familiar with them.
There are ways to fund public education that allow both systems to thrive in Alaska, delivering the best possible education for Alaska’s children. All it takes is politicians looking to solve problems, instead of scapegoating one group in order to pander to the other. Homeschool students aren’t the problem with public education in Alaska; politicians like Brent Johnson are.
The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
21 Comments
The data on Rudners famous study is biased. Rudner himself noted the limitations of the data, cautioning that the study proved homeschooling was a viable academic option for these motivated families, but it did not legally or scientifically prove that homeschooling causes higher test scores compared to public schools.
Homeschooling is not a public education system. It is a choice for families with certain luxuries. If my neighbor chooses to not send her kid to the public school in our district or charter school for whatever reason, then by all means do so, but do not mooch off the public funding or complain that the city is not paying enough for each homeschooled kid. Homeschooling should be in the same category as a private school, it’s a choice. Don’t choose to homeschool your kid and then have the audacity and demand money from public funds. DOGE needs to come in and investigate all the homeschoolers.
I agree. So then all the State Homeschool programs can finally close and layoff those employees (whom typically lean left). However, parents and grandparents homeschooling or using allotments for private school tuition. These parents need to stand on their own two feet. Because if a single mother on a 23,000-24,000 annual salary can homeschool without State homeschool allotments then Anyone can . Homeschool parents and grandparents Would still homeschool even without the state homeschool allotments than send their children to public schools. Still! in the end. public schools will still be short on money.
So, Liz, when the public schools fail to educate your child, what are your options? Be rich? Put them in private schools? Or, maybe, take the time and energy to teach your kid one on one, and make sure they learn what they need to in order to succeed. And somehow, you think that’s a poor plan. Why should I pay to send YOUR kid to public school, where they are not required to learn the material and will be passed on to the next grade without being able to read or write or do arithmetic, and will graduate without basic knowledge needed to face the real world? No thanks. It costs whatever it costs to educate a kid, and if the public schools won’t do it, then I will, and I expect not to have to pay for your failing kid and his unionized useless teachers. Give us a break. Your comment is nonsense.
How liberal of you to think that you can do whatever you want. By all means, don’t pay your taxes. Last I checked, folks who put their kids in private schools also have to pay taxes, and yes those taxes will go to public funding. You are not just paying to send my kid to school, you are paying taxes. Taxes are mandatory, like it or not, and pay not only for public services but also the street you drive on.
But yes, you hit the nail. You are choosing to educate your kid on your time. Once again, it is a choice you made because your opinion is that your zoned public school is failing your kid. Most people do not believe that all public schools are failing. Most people do not have the luxury, like yourself, to keep their kid at home because they go to work & while they work, their kids hop on a bus and go to school.
Feel free to take the money you received from public funding to educate your kid at your own leisure, in your own home and return it back to the bucket.
I forgot to mention, I don’t want my taxes to pay for the maintenance on your street since I never drive on it.
Really, Liz? I hate to tell you this, but I worked while I homeschooled. Why should my taxes, which of course I pay, go to educate other children when it does not go to educate mine? How does it take one bit of taxes from you if it pays for my kid’s education at home instead of at a public school? Your argument is specious on its face.
Because it’s your choice Tamra. You lead a privileged life if you can make your own schedule and work while homeschooling your kid. Most people in this country cannot do so. Now you’re just throwing a tantrum while mooching off the system.
I’d also like to point out the school system in Germany Tamra. Everyone in Germany pays taxes, quite a lot actually. Some people have kids, some don’t but they still pay. Homeschooling is not allowed in Germany. Parents do not have a choice. Do you know what they do have? One of the worlds best education system.
So Liz, you think that we need to tax ourselves like Germany and that will somehow end up with all kids getting a great education? How much money is enough? Because so far the ASD gets more money per student than most districts and still can’t produce a majority of children who are proficient in simple math, let alone geometry, trig or calculus. Same is true of reading, writing, and all other measures of a good education. They pass kids up grades without the kids demonstrating they are ready to do so, and then graduate functional illiterates. Not sure any amount of my taxes is going to change that outcome. And BTW, anyone can homeschool their children. It is a choice, and may require a career hiatus or change of jobs, but if you really care for your kids and want the best for them, it is quite doable. I don’t believe anyone would consider me “privileged.”
My wife and I homeschooled all our children. It was a sacrifice that we gladly made and we are far from your stereotype of “privileged”. We didn’t see the inside of a restaurant or have a family vacation for years. But it was worth it to give them a classical education and be free from people like you Liz. Your lot is among the worst and most people don’t like you because you’re a crazy ideologue and you force that ideology down peoples throats. I look forward to helping homeschool all my grandchildren. Your lot will never have any of them and you all can go pound sand.
If you are going to demand taxes to put into the coffer of “public funds”, then they have every right to demand that money back. If homeschool parents can stop paying taxes, THEN they can stop collecting.
Do the parents of private schools still pay taxes?
What Liz wrote.
Brent Johnson is a parent from another time. He’s a Babyboomer. Homeschooling today is much different than homeschooling in the 1970’s,1980’s, 1990’s.
There is a Plethora of homeschooling curriculums and kits alongside the Internet with its private homeschooling businesses and online schools that GenZ, GenAlpha, and GenBeta have been using successfully and even getting a far better education than if they attended An Alaska school district school because Alaska k-12 education sucks.
Product of public, kids did public, private, home. grandkids are in private and public. Life experience: Best is Homeschooling, then private with public last. Funding is out of control and funds come from extorting money from property owners. The general public is also mostly a product of public education and refuses to go past the poor education the received. This results is today’s version of education. No God, no country, no morals. Sleepy polite discussion will not solve the issue. Peaceful but direct uncompromising dissent. Outlaw property tax. Make all parents contribute. Sales tax. Use PFD if there must be public funding. Long live the Republic.
I appreciate the author’s point that labeling a group is not an effective campaign strategy. I would venture that the real reason Johnson wants to outlaw homeschooling is to gain the funding from their attendance.
I’m not sure why the author cited a 1978 study when, as he says, there are several studies showing better results from homeschooling.
The most recent such study is a look at 24 peer reviewed studies of homeschooling. Sixty two percent showed positive results from homeschooling.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0161956X.2025.2605900
As a country we should g back to when parents paid for their child to go to a public school just as it was for George Washington when he was a boy. This way no taxes are collected to pay for a Dept of Education and school districts.
When kids are homeschooled, the state loses control over their indoctrination, and make no mistake, it’s all about control. Home schooling and private academy schools allow parents to have more control over what their children learn, how they learn it, and when and where they learn it. I currently am teaching Alaska History to home schoolers as a contractor, and I can guarantee you that they are bright and able students! In reality it costs much less to educate students by home schooling them, especially when the public schools will never, never have enough money no matter how much the citizens fork over.
You’re not a pleasant person. You have proven it over and over in your comments, Tamra works 80 hours a week to live her (privileged) life. You are nuts and ungrateful. You are a very insulting person. The public school system currently is a train wreck. That’s not to say it can’t be fixed. You know what fixes most poorly run businesses ?? competitors. You know what I want coming out of my schools?? Smart hardworking young people with drive . We are currently not getting that. And that’s a fact.
I am married to someone who worked in the homeschool system in Alaska. Some parents went above and beyond, some were neutral and some were down right terrible. Just like parents in the public school system where I worked. Some kids were prepared for school everyday and some were not.
Liz, you brought up Germany. Lately there has been a lot of angst there over the very high taxes you mentioned. They are taxed unmercifully, along with some of the other European nations. They are not all happy clams. Many are finding it difficult to make ends meet with all that taxation that you note we are required to pay under penalty of law, even if they become onerous.