Alaska parents, vendors rally against bill to defund school choice

The Alaska State Legislature is considering a bill to effectively defund the state’s only school choice program, and parents aren’t happy.

SB 277 would rearrange the funding structure of its Correspondence School Allotment Program (CSAP), sending the money first to public schools to cover administrative expenses.

Parents, teachers and vendors of educational services have lambasted the bill for undermining the well-established and successful school choice program.

“The traditional public school system needs an overhaul on a fundamental level,” said parent Jedediah Smith in a written testimony. “It does NOT need to start taking additional funding from programs that are experiencing growth and educational success.”

One mother noted her children had been in the correspondence program for three years and were now scoring in the top 90% on state tests.

“We are able to educate our children for a fraction of the cost and are successful,” she said.

CSAP launched in 2014 and currently serves more than 24,000 students, or nearly 20% of the state’s K-12 population. Its maximum funding is $4,500 per student – a mere fraction of the $20,000 Alaska public schools spend per pupil annually.

Vendors testified that if state dollars no longer followed the student, independent schools may be forced to shut their doors.

“Without that funding, programs like ours will be forced to close, limiting your educational choices and disrupting the support systems your family relies on,” said Patrick Manning, superintendent of CyberLynx.

However, Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, chair of the Senate Education Committee, defended the bill.

​​“The hope for this is to continue to support our brick-and-mortar schools and then also recognize that they are also providing services, sometimes, to students who aren’t enrolled in their district, and to ensure that there is no loss of that ability to continue to offer those services or any costs that shifted onto the family,” Tobin said.

In theory, additional funding could help public schools offer services to privately educated students, such as sports teams or access to swimming pools.

Nevertheless, SB 277 is so unpopular even public school officials are opposing it.

The Mat-Su School Board, whose district is the second-largest in the state, has proposed a resolution to oppose SB 277.

The resolution recognizes “school choice has long been a cornerstone of Alaska’s educational landscape” and Alaska has “historically prioritized funding education closest to the student, rather than expanding administrative structures.”