Last month, Gov. Sean Parnell declared in his State of the State Address that 2014 would be the "Education Session." He encouraged Alaskans to "commit ourselves to a respectful debate that ends with a plan to offer more opportunity to more students."
This would be welcome news if part of that plan didn't include privatizing Alaska's education sector and relegating Alaska Native students back to residential schools in exchange for increasing the state's per-pupil funding by a paltry $201 over the next three years.
The education policy outlined in the governor's speech -- and codified in Senate Bill 139, House Bill 278, and Senate Joint Resolution 9 -- contains measures that will likely erase the modest gains in high school graduation rates cited by the governor, in addition to eroding the civil rights of Alaska Natives living in rural communities.
In order to "remove barriers for providing more residential schools for our rural students and encourage the private sector to support this successful model," the governor's sweeping education bill establishes a formal application process for school districts wishing to operate state and district-wide residential schools, increases per-pupil monthly stipends for residential school students, and offers tax credits to corporations willing to build and operate school facilities to "encourage a public-private partnership directed toward improving educational opportunities in Alaska."
This plan to establish more residential schools in partnership with the private sector is an effort by the state to renege on its legal obligation to provide high school in Alaska Native communities pursuant to the 1976 Tobeluk v. Lind or "Molly Hootch" settlement. Facing litigation from Alaska Native plaintiffs, the state agreed that year to build and operate high schools in Alaska Native communities after the Alaska Supreme Court found that a separate system of residential high schools for Alaska Natives constituted a pattern and practice of racial discrimination in violation of the United States Constitution, federal non-discrimination laws, and the Alaska Constitution.
Yet 38 years later, the governor intends to again facilitate the transition of rural Alaska Native students away from our cultures, languages and communities back to residential schools. If these schools are built, they will drain many local high schools of sorely needed per-pupil funding and the student counts needed to remain open. And as we know, once schools close, communities and the cultures they nurture quickly follow. This bill also comes at a time when Alaska Native communities are seeking more, not less, self-determination over institutions that affect our health and wellbeing.
Vouchers not based on evidence
On top of this, Parnell wants to amend Article 7 of the state Constitution to allow for public funding of private and religious schools. This is where Senate Joint Resolution 9 comes in, which if approved by the state House and Senate this legislative session, would put the constitutional amendment question to a public vote in November.
If he gets his way and the Alaska Constitution is amended, the governor plans to implement an education voucher program in which parents rather than school districts would receive their share of per student funding to spend on the open market as they wish.
Part of the problem with this proposal is that education vouchers, despite being intended to "keep Alaska strong," as the governor put it, are associated with negative educational outcomes for students in school districts that are utilizing them, while at the same time siphoning millions of dollars away from public schools into the private sector.
The independent non-profit Center for Education Research reviewed a decade's worth of voucher research in 2011, finding that "vouchers do not have a strong effect on students' academic achievement."
And in Milwaukee, Wis., which has had a school voucher program since 1990, voucher schools have never outperformed the public schools on state tests. Apparently, the only debate in that city is whether voucher students perform the same or worse than their public school peers. Last year, for example, 11 percent of voucher students passed the state's reading test, and 13 percent passed math. This contrasts with the 14 percent of Milwaukee Public Schools students who scored proficient in reading and 19 percent in math. In return, Milwaukee's voucher program diverted $50 million from the city's public schools in 2013 alone.
"The taxpayers are paying for a second, competing school system that doesn't do as well as the one we already have," Wisconsin state Rep. Sondy Pope, a Democrat, told Politico. "It's extremely irresponsible stewardship of tax dollars."
An evaluation of D.C.'s voucher program carried out by the U.S. Department of Education in 2010 came to a similar conclusion, finding that "There is no conclusive evidence that the OSP (Opportunity Scholarship Program) affected student achievement."
Furthermore, Louisiana's voucher program -- considered the most sweeping in the country -- has also failed to produce evidence of a meaningful academic advantage. Louisiana's voucher program has instead led to more segregation in Louisiana schools, litigation by the Department of Justice, and the teaching of religious and racist ideology in voucher schools. Louisiana is part of a growing number of states that are using taxpayers' dollars to fund the teaching of creationist private schools, eliminating the separation between church and state held as the basis for a democratic society.
Public education is an essential pillar of our democracy, not an apparatus of the private sector or the plaything of whimsical policymaking. Alaska Natives are citizens of this state and country, with equal rights protected under the U.S. Constitution. These facts shouldn't be taken for granted as the Legislature debates the governor's education bill this session and weighs the merits of amending the state Constitution. It is up to Alaska Native advocacy organizations and citizens who believe in these democratic values to convince our state representatives that they should do the same.
Timothy Aqukkasuk Argetsinger holds a master's degree in education policy and researches school-based trauma interventions at Children's Hospital Boston. He is from Anchorage.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.