By BOB GRIFFIN
Despite significant disparities in funding and adequacy, Florida dramatically outperforms Alaska in the quality of high school graduates. This is despite having a higher poverty rate than Alaska and twice the rate of students who speak English less than “very well”.
In 2024 a Rutger University study ranked Alaska as the second most adequately funded K-12 system in the US with a score of 95 out of possible 100. Florida was rank last with a score of 12.
In 2023, 28.4% of Florida high school graduates passed at least one Advanced Placement (AP) test, ranking 4th highest in the US. Conversely, Alaska ranked 40th with only 12.4% of high school graduates passing at least one AP test.
A common misconception is that Alaska’s poor school performance is solely due to low-performing rural schools in predominantly native communities. While there are notable challenges in some rural schools, urban schools in Alaska also show lackluster performance.
The 2024 NAEP 4th grade reading scores for upper/middle-income white students in Alaska were statistically indistinguishable from the reading scores in Miami Dade Public Schools in Florida, where 94% of the students are ethnic minorities, two-thirds are from low-income families, and over half speak a language other than English at home.
So, what is the key difference between the Florida and Alaska education systems? In two words: Healthy competition.
The Alaska K-12 education system is essentially a government-controlled monopoly. Though there are some options for parents, such as charter schools, local government school boards often openly hostile to charters routinely restrict their authorizations and enrollment levels well below public demand. Alaska is one of only five states in the US where local school boards have sole authority to authorize charter schools and limit their capacity. Consequently, only 5.5% of Alaska public school students are enrolled in charters compared to 13.3% in Florida.
Additionally, 13.4% of Florida students attend private schools, with over 70% of them being low-income students who receive government assistance for their private school tuition. In Alaska, private school enrollments make up only 3.3% of all students—a figure that is one of the lowest in the country and predominantly comprised of students from upper-income families.
When healthy competition exists, there are incentives to innovate and improve to attract patrons. Monopolies, on the other hand, have no incentive to improve and tend to devolve into low-quality and overly expensive enterprises.
In summary, the stark differences in educational outcomes between Florida and Alaska can be attributed to the presence or absence of healthy competition within their respective education systems. The competitive environment in Florida fosters innovation and improvement, whereas the monopolistic system in Alaska lacks the necessary incentives to excel.
Rutgers Study:
Bob Griffin is on the board of Alaska Policy Forum and served on the Alaska Board of Education and Early Development.
Step One: Gut the influence of the NEA Cartel.
You won’t have competition as long as the teacher’s unions control the schools, legislature and school boards.
Want better schools, get rid of the unions…….
I refuse to believe that choice will make schools better. It will for those students with parents who are willing and can afford that choice. Personally as a 45 year public educator I care about the kids left in our failing schools, the
Kids no one else cares about! I actually once had a person in AK, I actually respect, tell me he didn’t really care about those children, only his.
As a Christian and someone who has spent their entire career in education, I care about all children and we all should.
The problem in AK is we don’t have people strong enough in leadership to take a stand. Just easier to give them money.
Anyone that thinks AK bush schools are not at any disadvantage has never actually spent much time in those schools. Come spend a week with me sleeping on gym floors.
Our state consistently gives more money to failing schools? Why is that? They don’t have the guts to take on these districts whether it be Anchorage or rural. The state controls millions in school improvement grants that have no teeth in them. Doesn’t matter if they fail, we just let them apply and get it again.
I have worked in urban, rural, bush and for the state in education. It infuriates me that we don’t have the leadership in this state from either party to do what needs to be done.
But what would I know? I have just successfully helped schools turn around but once you leave, incompetent school boards, non caring union leaders and weak leaders at the local and state level just turn their heads. I say to all of the above, shame on you!
Judy Eledge, I really respect your experiences in the rural schools. You have first hand experience, something I do not. You hit the proverbial nail on the head with much of your statement, especially the comments on “leadership”, incompetent school boards, and non-caring union leaders.
However, I must disagree with some of your statement, “I refuse to believe that choice will make schools better. It will for those students with parents who are willing and can afford that choice.”
If all parents are informed of how poorly their school is teaching the kids how to read, do math, and learn history, then most parents will get involved to get a better education for their children. Information is power and the school hierarchy knows that. If the schools were required to post a letter grade, A to F, on their outside marquees like Florida requires, then parents would know if the school was successful or not. But that is the last thing a superintendent/principal wants parents to know.
I found that once low income parents in Mt View knew that their school was failing their kids, they became activated and got their kids to a better public school. That was back in NCLB. Parents love their kids and want what’s best for them. I know, there are some that will never get involved in their kid’s education. But that has always been the case. And that is very regretful.
Regarding the financial aspect of a low income family getting a better education for their kids: There are many states now that have Education Savings Accounts. These provide “indirect” funding for a parent to be able to get state monies to send their child to a private educational institution. And, guess what, that does not fly in the face of the Alaska Constitution which prohibits “direct funding”. But the education cartel and its fellow legislators always confuse the issue using the Blaine Amendment language in the AK Constitution. The state currently provides funding to private and even parochial educational institutions. And the Anchorage School District uses state and Muni funds to do the same.
Anyway, I agree with most all you say except for the impact of real competition on K12 education. Remember, the K12 system will not fix itself from outside. Thanks and keep up the good work with Alaska’s children.
Yawn. Emotional argument with minimal logical intent.
Imagine having a family and surrendering all responsibilities of educating the children to the State™. Judy, if you refuse to acknowledge each adult’s implicit and explicit unique duty of cultivating their child’s development into adulthood, then you’ll always end up thinking in a stale and overly humanitarian solution workflow.
A society flourishes with low or no taxes and regulation.
Academia’s bureaucracy is about to be flipped upside down because of LLMs.
Create a supply of opportunity and parents will flock to it. Early adopters will benefit the most; disengaged parents will realize the benefit of customized educational opportunity and leave behind the dross of government schools.
Stop shaming parents who are engaged with their children’s future.
The other way to fix the schools is to put control of the $$$ as close to the student as humanly possible. This means in the hands of their parents / guardians. And yes, this eventually means vouchers.
Before you point out that vouchers are constitutionally prohibited in AK via the state constitution, a similar provision was overturned in the Montana constitution was overturned by SCOTUS in its which are legal in AK via SCOTUS 2020 opinion in Espinoza v Montana Department of Revenue. All we need is a governor willing to enforce that opinion. Cheers –
Speaking only for myself and not the Anchorage School Board or District.
I encourage readers to watch the Thursday June 12 emergency Anchorage School Board meeting. At that meeting, I proposed budget reductions that would absorb the $4.3 million veto impact on ASD without increasing class sizes or emergency school closings. My proposal was to reinstate the reduction in Assistant Principals (contained in the original budget passed in February) and eliminate a non-instructional planning period in middle schools that costs over $3 million. It was rejected by a 1 – 6 vote. I explained that delaying would cost months of lost opportunities for reductions making the needed cuts much more difficult in the Board adopted delay to December. Unfortunately, news reports failed to mention my proposal.
Dave Donley
School choice is a very good way of improving schools. Tie the revenue a school receives to the quality of the education provided, and you will start seeing student performance improve. You will also start seeing unnecessary expenditures drop.
Exactly how many vice principles does a school need anyway?
The typical radial leftist lemming:
My body, my choice!
My children, no choice!
That’s because if they can’t kill children’s unborn bodies then the next option is to kill their minds.