Competing Alaska House and Senate bills propose fixes to homeschool laws ruled unconstitutional

Lawmakers in the Alaska House and Senate are racing to craft a bill that would allow homeschool programs to continue after a judge threw out two key homeschool laws as unconstitutional, leaving parents of more than 20,000 students wondering what next school year will look like. 

Legislators are hoping to pass a bill in the next week or so that would provide those parents with some clarity on what’s ahead, but there’s some disagreement on the best approach.

In the Senate, Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, is pitching Senate Bill 266, which she says would basically restore the homeschool system that existed before the 2014 law that was ruled unconstitutional.

“That was the most recent example we have of a constitutionally sound correspondence allotment program,” she said Friday.

A judge said April 12 that Alaska’s current allotment program is not constitutionally sound because it allows parents to use state homeschool funding for tuition at private schools in violation of a section of the state Constitution barring the use of public money for private or religious education.

Tobin’s bill aims to address the judge’s concerns. For one thing, if the bill becomes law, there would be stricter rules on how homeschool funds, known as “allotments,” can be spent. Students would also no longer be allowed to opt out of state testing as they currently are under a 2016 law. Tobin says that’s an effort to assess whether homeschooled students are keeping up with state standards.

“One of the things we’ve heard pretty repeatedly here in the Legislature is that we need more accountability data, and one of the strongest tools of accountability is receiving that assessment data,” Tobin said.

The bill has received significant pushback during public hearings from homeschool parents. Some take issue with the bill’s requirement that unspent allotments be returned at the end of the year — some parents say they save up allotment funding to spend on college classes that allow their students to get ahead. Others object to the bill’s restrictions on purchases, saying things like ski passes, gym memberships and travel to cultural events play a key role in their children’s education.

The testing requirement is another source of criticism, including from Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his administration. At a news conference on May 1, Dunleavy said it could be inconvenient for homeschool families who value flexibility. 

“[If] one is in Kazakhstan, the family is, and the job requires them to be there March, April, May — and homeschool goes on all year long — and the state or whoever decides to do testing in March, what do we do with those folks?” Dunleavy said.

Just 14% of students at Alaska’s largest statewide correspondence school participated in state reading and math tests last year, but, speaking remotely alongside Dunleavy, Education Commissioner Deena Bishop said that’s no cause for alarm. 

“I don’t have a concern. In fact, statistically speaking, a 14% return is an excellent way to understand how, you know, a survey or some type of program, if you look at any type of research, is doing,” Bishop said.

A day after the judge in the homeschool case declined to put the ruling on hold beyond the end of June, Dunleavy came out in support of a House bill that would take its own approach toward fixing the constitutional issues with the homeschool program. 

The sponsor, Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, said House Bill 400 would task the state Board of Education with coming up with new homeschool regulations — rules that specifically abide by the Alaska Constitution’s ban on using state funds for private or religious education.

“It was essentially trying to find, what is the most simple way to say an individualized learning plan should exist and an allotment should be able to be paid, as long as it is paid in accordance with constitutional language,” Ruffridge said.

Ruffridge argued the drafting of detailed rules should be up to people more familiar with the day-to-day operations of correspondence schools rather than the Legislature. The bill would also require the state to monitor how allotments are spent. 

At public hearings, homeschool parents have generally offered support for the approach, though what rules the state board would roll out are a question mark at this early stage.

It’s unclear at this point which approach will win out — but lawmakers will have to act fast. The Legislature’s regular session must adjourn by midnight on May 15.