By BOB GRIFFIN
The average K-12 student in Alaska costs the state 2.2 times the $5,960 Base Student Allocation after all the multipliers in the funding formula or about $13,100 per year. The funding formula is just one component of the $20,535/student Alaska spent in local, state and federal K-12 funding in 2022-23 according to the NEA.
All correspondence school students in Alaska are currently funded and 0.9 BSA or $5,364/year. With 24,000 Alaskan kids enrolled in correspondence programs, the state is currently saving around $186 million/year in what those students would cost in formula funding if they were enrolled in neighborhood schools.
There is a proposal in Juneau to increase the BSA allotment for these correspondence students to 1.0. It officially has a fiscal note of $14 million a year since it would increase the student allotment about $600 for each student currently in correspondence program. The part that most policy makers are missing is the potential for cost savings if an additional $600 incentivizes more parents to patriciate in the program.
For every student who leaves a neighborhood school and enrolls in a correspondence program at 1.0 BSA, the state will be saving about $7,200 per year per student in formula funding. It would only take an additional 1,900 kids switching (an 8% increase correspondence enrollment) to completely erase the cost of the change in the program. With a 20% increase in enrollment, the state would be saving and additional $21 million per year.
The other benefit that is often overlooked is the fact that the kids in correspondence programs have very little impact on the local, federal and capital funding for neighborhood schools – so there’s significantly higher funding, on a per student basis, for the kids in neighborhood schools who don’t have to share those other funding streams with an additional 24,000 students.
A small increase in the correspondence allotment would allow more families to participate in this program that has become so wildly popular with Alaska parents. It also has the potential for increasing the per student resources that go to kids in our neighborhood schools and additional savings for taxpayers.
Bob Griffin is a former member of the Alaska Board of Education and Early Development and a life-long learner.
Makes too much sense and saves money, so established school districts and school boards will oppose any increase in correspondence schools. Good luck!
The money needs to follow the student – whether to a school district brick and mortar building, a charter school, a correspondence program, a home school. If the outcomes are the same, what does it matter how much money we throw at the problem of poor outcomes? But the outcomes are not the same. Charter and home schooling have a better record than the entrenched, top-heavy, union-controlled public schools. And at a lower cost per student. Let’s start there by encouraging better outcomes! If the public schools cannot, or will not improve, then what are we to do? Hold ourselves and our property taxes hostage to support a failed system?
All the blaming of some other factor or faction needs to stop. If your kid isn’t learning what they need to become a good, productive citizen, then something needs to change – and the parents are the first step. By voting! If that fails, then all that’s left is homeschooling, charter schools, neighbor teaching groups, something besides failing to fix the problem!
It could also result in a generation of hyper religious retards. All can see that Alaska’s education system is broken but the fix is not as clear as giving control to well intentioned but under qualified parents.
Scrumptious Clam, If parents are not the solution to Alaska’s broken K12 system, then what, pray tell, is your solution? Not sure the “retard” comment helps your argument.
Parents are a strong component of a proper education and that had been reflected in (for example) the NLABC program decades back. Each of those kid’s parents had to participate to a greater degree than might the parents of children that went to neighborhood schools. That does not mean that any parent of those higher performing children should ever be assumed qualified to take hands on responsibility for teaching their own children much of anything.
I have met both parent and progeny of home schooling that produced revolting results and placing both ultimate teaching authority and responsibility in the hands of the unqualified has never been known to produce great results.
One family I observed with curiosity was large and in my view hyper religious. There was little expectation of the kids and now they’re all adults and reaping the unfortunate result of another aspect of Alaska’s broken education system.
The kids? They’re getting along poorly as adults now and likely always will.
Is this news to you?
If the parents get voucher, to word about which options are the highest quality will quickly spread; just like all product in a free market. Private schools must necessarily be a voucher option for parents in order for the free market competitive magic to work.
Alaska would save so much money on public education if we just didn’t allow students to access the schools. Problem solved. I don’t know why we need to increase the BSA when we can just close the doors and save all the money…
Ain’t nobody going to them schools cuz they don’t work. How much money does it take to rank 49th in the nation? Answer: MORE!
Make it mandatory for the publicly funded correspondence students to take standardized testing along with the brick-and-mortar students. It is necessary for the students’ sake to make sure that parents are doing a good job educating their children. When parents assign the grades, without testing, there’s no way to ensure that a child is actually learning. At some point the child may return to the brick-and-mortar, and it is discovered he is terribly behind. I’m all for homeschool, but the child is the client, and there needs to be some accountability. I’m a recently-retired middle school teacher.
Start with accountability for brick and mortar, maybe?