Lawmakers to wait on Alaska Supreme Court as families reel in wake of correspondence ruling

Danielle Brubaker shops for homeschool materials at the IDEA Homeschool Curriculum Fair in Anchorage on April 18, 2024. A court ruling struck down the part of Alaska law that allows correspondence school families to receive money for such purchases.

“It will affect every aspect of our homeschooling. From what curriculum we use to how we’re able to do extracurriculars to whether or not we’re able to do outings and things like that, just because our budget would be that much tighter,” Gold said. Attorneys on both sides of the case have requested that the courts put the ruling on hold. Such holds, called stays, can take weeks to be granted.

House Majority Leader Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, said House lawmakers would wait to act until they know more about how that could affect the state’s court case. “Districts can continue on,” she said on Wednesday, adding that the department will address a final decision when it comes.Changes to statute are more lasting than regulation changes and take time to develop and enact.

With that in mind, Dunleavy said his administration has already begun considering a range of solutions that “can range from everything from a constitutional amendment to a potential educational dividend, to a postsecondary type of scholarship to — and if the Supreme Court rules in a manner so it’s just a statute change or regulatory change — we can deal with it. But we won’t know until that happens, so we’re prepared to move quickly.

“I’ll kind of see what happens because that’s the most expensive chunk. It would be a hard thing to swallow if my girls do want to try the public school system,” she said.“I don’t think homeschoolers will be as successful without those resources,” she said. “The timing was poor for us, of course,” she said, but added that the event had a record number of participants on its opening day regardless. “Everybody’s trying to figure out what to do. We’re trying to figure out, families are trying to figure out, the companies are trying to figure out.”

Uncertainty didn’t stop Danielle Brubaker from looking at materials for her daughter. Without the allotment, she said they may not be able to pay for weekly horseback-riding lessons. “The sense I’m getting is they’re not going to put their kids in public school, even if they shut that down,” he said, noting that many states have voucher systems or educational savings accounts that allow parents to spend state money on private or religious materials.

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