OPINION: State should support all students and families

As former members and past presidents of the Anchorage School Board, we paid close attention when an Anchorage judge recently struck down voucher language that was clearly unconstitutional. That decision drives home how important it is for the state to come together and pass much-needed education legislation supporting all students and families, whether they are in neighborhood, charter or correspondence schools.

The recent court decision on correspondence was narrow: It simply strikes down “allotments” when used for private or religious school tuition. Alaska had correspondence programs long before the 2014 law that’s been struck down, and the state Department of Education and Early Development could easily issue emergency regulations returning to pre-2014 regulation of allotments, which were legal. Unfortunately, the Dunleavy administration seems unwilling to do this, and prefers to use homeschool students as a political tool to attack Alaska’s constitution. This is cynical and destructive, and it’s obvious the Legislature is not going to rewrite the Alaska Constitution to enable spending on private school tuition.

Because the governor won’t do the simple work of providing stability through regulation, the state Legislature should pass a bill restoring constitutional correspondence statutes. The Legislature should include in this bill a Base Student Allocation, or BSA, increase indexed to inflation. The BSA supports all students, from neighborhood to charter to correspondence, and 10 years of cuts have devastated our wide range of public school programs.

The Legislature should also reform Alaska’s broken public employee retirement system. Teachers’ worst-in-the-nation retirement plan is driving turnover, and extensive evidence shows teacher effectiveness increases significantly when they have a decade or more of experience. Unfortunately, many Alaska teachers are leaving after just a couple years since every other state has better benefits. We have to retain teachers if we want to improve educational outcomes.

With only a few weeks left in session, now is the time for legislators to act. Provide stable funding for all schools and constitutionally-sound statues for correspondence students. The governor is trying to politicize correspondence, but doing so only puts students and families at risk. Now is the time to support all kids, wherever they go to public school.

Jake Metcalfe, Jeff Friedman and Eric Croft are former members of the Anchorage School Board. Metcalfe served on the board from 2001-07; Friedman served from 2003-12; and Croft served from 2013-16.

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