Homeschool parents object to a task force line on correspondence programs

Homeschooling parents pushed back Thursday on one sentence in a legislative task force's draft recommendations. It asks school districts to look at folding correspondence programs into "a broader brick-and-mortar framework."

Correspondence programs let homeschooling families stay in the public school system. School districts run them, and families teach at home with an approved curriculum, a supervising teacher and an annual allotment for materials. The programs enrolled 22,959 students in 2023-24, according to the state education department. Several testifiers put that at about 1 in 5 Alaska students.

The draft from the Legislature's Task Force on Education Funding says districts should investigate ways to do it, "acknowledging extensive post-pandemic research indicating that for most students, in-person learning significantly outperforms online and distance learning." A second recommendation calls for reviewing the state's correspondence laws, which the draft says "allow broad exemptions from statewide content standards, proficiency assessments, and fiscal audits."

More than a dozen people objected to the draft's correspondence recommendations during the all-day hearing, most of them homeschooling parents.

"This sentence on page 9 is the only stated basis for folding correspondence programs into brick-and-mortar frameworks. Please remove it," said Barbara Haney, a North Pole economist who homeschools. The draft cites no studies for the claim, she said.

Kendal Kruse, a Palmer mother who homeschools three of her five children and sits on the Mat-Su school board, said supervising teachers already check that correspondence curriculum meets state standards. She asked the task force to say so if the line meant something other than forcing students back into classrooms.

One testifier was a task force member's mother. "If that name sounds familiar, that is my mother, for the record," said Rep. Justin Ruffridge of Soldotna as Linda Ruffridge of Kenai came up. She backed several of the draft's recommendations but said "homeschooling is not a lesser form of education, nor is it something students need to be moved away from." All three of her children were homeschooled, she said.

Not everyone agreed. Kathleen Yerbich, a teacher at American Charter School in Wasilla, said she sees students return after years of homeschooling "and they are significantly behind." She called for testing every child every year. "We are placing the parents' right to choose above educating our children," she said.

Jacob Barra, an Anchorage educator with three children in neighborhood schools, said funding hasn't kept up with all the choices parents want, and that neighborhood schools feel it.

In 2023-24, only about 15% of correspondence students took the state's AK STAR tests, compared with about 80% of students statewide. Of those who did, 45% were proficient in English, against 31.5% statewide. In math it was 35% against 31%.

Sen. Löki Tobin of Anchorage, a task force co-chair, said the draft will inform a full report that "will provide all of the citations and documentation" behind the recommendations.

Rep. Will Stapp, a Fairbanks Republican who isn't on the task force and homeschools his own children, said homeschool families have "always kind of felt like there was this Machiavellian scheme" to force their kids back into public schools. He said putting the line in the draft wasn't helpful, and that he hoped to assure parents "it's really not the objective of folks in the legislature" to force their kids back into classrooms.

Written comments are open through Dec. 8. The final report is due Jan. 19, the first day of the 2027 session.