Written by Tom Kreimeyer
Updated: 8 hours ago Published: 8 hours ago
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/adn/3ENNKS3JDBDRPJ6VUNU7I4KPGQ.jpg)
NEA-Alaska supports all students and their families, whether they attend neighborhood school, charter school, optional school, distance learning, private school, religious school, or homeschool. We believe Juneau's elected leaders do the same. But now Alaska families need action from lawmakers of all political parties to fix what's broken.
At midnight on Friday, April 12, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolph Zeman granted summary judgment in Alexander v. Acting Chief Heidi Teschner. The decision sided with the plaintiffs and struck down Alaska Statutes 14.03.300-.310 as unconstitutional. These statutes govern how Alaska's distance school program allocates funds to support educational opportunities for students beyond the walls of traditional neighborhood schools.
At issue was a particularly salient part of the law that outlined how families could use public funds to purchase materials and lessons “from public, private, or religious organizations.” His four words, “civil or religious organization,” have been the law of the land since 2014 and have been unconstitutional all along. This section was added by order of then-Sen. Mike Dunleavy actually testified before a legislative committee that this language was unconstitutional, but pushed for it anyway. Those words had their day in court, and the Constitution won.
Since this decision was announced, there has been much speculation, hostility, and vitriol against NEA-Alaska, the association of dedicated public education employees that I serve. I think I want to.
First and foremost, I have never met an educator who does not believe that all students should have every opportunity to learn in the environment that is best for them. From distance learning to homeschooling to public charter schools to neighborhood schools to private and religious schools, each family must make its own decisions about what is most advantageous for its child. This lawsuit was never about taking away those opportunities or decisions, but about adhering to the language of the state constitution, a document that all elected officials in Juneau are sworn to uphold.
As a reminder, Article VII, Section 1 of the Alaska State Constitution states, “The Legislature, by general law, shall establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children in the State.'' and other public educational institutions may be established.'' Schools and institutions so established shall not be subject to sectarian control. No money is paid from public funds for the direct benefit of religious or other private educational institutions. ” The last sentence could not be more clear.
Alaska has room for strong options for parents and students to educate their children without violating the Constitution. Before this language was added in 2014, we believe that distance learning and homeschooling programs utilized public education funds in a responsible manner and did not attempt to circumvent the Alaska Constitution. I know I can.
Student learning comes in all forms, requires creativity, and needs to reflect the values we want our children to embody. That's why we have a choice. But at a time when public schools, including public charter schools, are struggling to make ends meet, it is irresponsible to funnel tens of millions of public school funds to private and religious schools without any accountability or oversight.
Our association wants a solution that preserves constitutional correspondence school programs, homeschool options, public charter schools, and traditional neighborhood schools. We requested that the successful case be stopped because we did not want learning to be interrupted or families to be put in a difficult situation. Governor Dunleavy and the Alaska Legislature could solve this problem once and for all by reading the Alaska Constitution and passing a correspondence school law that complies with it. Of the myriad challenges currently facing our education system, this is the simplest solution. All we ask is for our leaders to come to the table and pass such legislation immediately.
Tom Krameyer is president of NEA Alaska.
The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a wide range of viewpoints. To submit your work for consideration, please email comment(at)adn.com. Submissions of less than 200 words should be sent to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via your web browser. Read our full letter and comment guidelines here.
