Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills explains the administration’s understanding of a ruling that struck down key components of the state’s correspondence school program, in the Alaska State Capitol on May 1, 2024.
In April, a ruling by a Superior Court judge threw out a state law governing homeschool allotments. Judge Adolf Zeman ruled that the law, which allowed families to spend allotments on private or religious education, was unconstitutional. The Alaska Constitution says that no money from public funds may directly benefit a religious or private educational institution.
Alaska’s correspondence schools date back to territorial days and parents of children enrolled in correspondence schools have been reimbursed by the state for education materials for decades. Today, parents whose children enroll in the state’s correspondence programs may still be reimbursed for what they pay for educational materials. But what families may be reimbursed for has been contested at various points over more than 20 years.
So they did. Under Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, the state determined that there had been rampant misspending of state education money and implemented comprehensive regulations. Michael Petrilli, a national education analyst and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy group, called them a “close cousin” of Alaska’s current correspondence allotment system.
He said the idea spread, but voucher popularity somewhat plateaued until the last 5-10 years. “The school choice groups decided that they would adopt a new strategy, which is to really focus on red states and on voucher programs that might appeal more to Republican legislators and Republican voters,” he said.
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