The Alaska House of Representatives has been working on a new education bill that includes an additional $47.5 million for home-schooled students.
Since, based on the numbers in the ADN article on April 4, there are 20,000 home-schooled students in the state, that means each one would get an additional $2,375 on top of the current BSA of $5,960, as well as an additional $680 added to the BSA if the current bill becomes law.
That amounts to $9,015 per home-schooled student.
Why are 20,000 students (16% of the student population) getting such a huge amount of money?
There is no accountability for how these funds are used or for the student outcomes of these children. In fact, the committee rejected an amendment that would have required the collection of data on how the money is used.
This is ironic because recently, Gov. Mike Dunleavy bemoaned the “lack of transparency” of the school budgeting process, yet the House majority caucus disallows any tracking of how the millions upon millions spent on home-schooled students is actually used.
The costs of home-schooling cannot be more than the cost of teaching a student in the school system. Parents of homeschooled children have no administrative costs, no additional property plant or equipment to maintain, no transportation costs, and the cost of learning materials simply cannot be more than the current BSA of $5,960 per student per year. So, where does the money go?
— Frank Jeffries
Anchorage
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