American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has released The 2023 ALEC Index of State Education Freedom: A 50-State Guide to Parental Empowerment.
The report evaluates each state on essential policies that maximize parental empowerment, education freedom, and student achievement, and the release coincides with an historic education freedom movement of 2023, with eight states passing universal school choice policies this year alone.
Florida ranked No. 1, followed by Arkansas, and Indiana. They all were given A grades. Arizona and Iowa rounded out the top five, but got B grades.
Alaska ranked 33, with a score of 37 out of 100, for a D grade. Alaska tied with Wyoming on the ranking in the lower end of the states for overall education freedom.
The ALEC Index of Education Freedom focuses on five categories of state education policy: funding and financing programs, charter schools, homeschooling, virtual schooling, and open enrollment. States are increasingly recognizing that each student has his or her own unique needs, background, and learning style, and these new rankings focus on state-level policies that maximize educational opportunity for all students.
“Parents across the country have made their voices clear: the status quo in American education isn’t working, and they are demanding access to more educational options for their students,” said ALEC CEO Lisa B. Nelson. “Whether a public school, virtual school, charter school, home school, or some other educational environment, states are leading the way by making all of these a possibility for families to choose from.”
In the category of funding and financing programs, Alaska scored an F because the state does not make it easy for families to access other educational choice options like virtual schools, home schools, charter schools, and more, according to the ALEC report.
“States need to make sure that dollars follow these students to whatever educational environment is best for them. This category looks at education scholarship account (ESA) programs, vouchers, and tax-credit scholarship programs that enable students to attend their school of choice, with an emphasis on universal programs that all students can utilize. These rankings are based on program data from EdChoice,” the report said.
Alaska did better in the Charter School ranking category, scoring 12th, earning a B grade.
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that operate without the same regulations given to traditional public schools. In exchange for this freedom to innovate, charter schools commit to obtaining specific learning goals. So long as these goals are met, the charter school can continue to operate.
“A state earns top marks in this category when the growth of charters is not capped, when a universal and/or non-district authorizer is available, and when charter schools receive similar funding to their traditional public-school counterparts. These rankings are based on data from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ Charter Law Database,” the report said.
In terms of homeschooling, however, Alaska earned an A and was No. 1, tying with 10 other states.
