After the Anchorage School Board had earlier postponed action on the recharter application by Family Partnership Charter School, the homeschool, parent-driven, student-centered charter school has won its 10-year recharter, with an enrollment cap of 1,850 students and an opportunity to increase to 3,000 students.
With 1,850 as the cap, the school will be able to see a 10 percent growth each year for over the next five years. At 1,850, the school will be providing education to about 4 percent of the Anchorage School District students.
“Parent after parent, student after student, staff member after staff member, proudly testified on behalf of our school. As I sat and listened to these testimonies, my heart filled with pride and love for our students and their families,” wrote FPCS Principal Jessica Parker. “It is the highest honor of my life to partner with you as you lead your students to their best possible futures. Our charter states our school is a bridge between home-school students and formal education; we are also a bridge between home-school students and their futures, which are full of possibilities.”
Parker said that she heard during the school board meetings that Family Partnership is the future of education.
“We have a formula that works – parents and educators working together to provide options for children’s individualized learning plans. We are closing the achievement gap for students. We are providing career and college opportunities. We are inspiring young athletes. We are helping struggling students with flexibility and choices that help them prioritize medical or personal struggles. There are many reasons families choose to home-school, tailoring education to fit the child. To quote one of our founders, Happy Chronister, ‘We cut the jacket to fit the kid, not the kid to fit the jacket.’ Home-schoolers are flourishing,” she wrote, thanking parents for taking the time to testify on behalf of the school. “We would not have won this fight without your voice,” she said.
Some on the Anchorage School Board are leery of homeschooling in general, and uncomfortable that so many are fleeing the traditional classroom in Anchorage to work under the guidance of FPCS. In the end, the board supported the renewal due to the pressure of multiple testimonies in favor of it, voting 4-2, with board member Dave Donley recusing himself because his children attend that school.
The school’s first charter application was presented to the Achorage School District in 1996 and unanimously approved in January 1997. Final approval by the State of Alaska Board of Education approval came on June 23, 1997. FPCS opened its doors a week later.
Just look at all those happy children, NOT wearing masks, and NOT keeling over dead from the virus.
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Pop quiz: what is the Covid death rate among kids of this age group?
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Answer: lower than the chances of them dying from a lightning strike.
I know right. It’s so upside down. If masks work at all, it should be adults wearing them more than kids, but the assembly is talking about removing the mandate before the school district is. I propose that we raise money for every classroom to get nice high end air filters for the fear mongers and then stop the mask bs. If they really want to talk about “science”, they don’t have legs to stand on at all because the science has been around for a long time and air sanitation is a much better solution than masks, according the osha and the cdc. But we already knew that. We have been saying this type of stuff based on facts until we are blue in the face and their response is “you people are irrational and selfish. The science is in. [ignoring whatever you said] How hard is it to wear a mask out of common courtesy. Look at how upset you are getting. You have no reason to be raising your voice at us”.
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What bugs me the most is that my kids are going to have grow up in a world full of unwise people that were raised by soft minded shallow idiots that weaponize fear in order to maintain their cliquish self-righteous and arrogant cool club status. I fear that this younger generation will learn there is nothing wrong with totalitarianism and that it “saves lives” and will deploy it for all sorts of things that are based on listening to the championing ideas that stick the most for whatever reason (mostly because it strokes egos) amongst the groupthink liberals in universities and the media.
It would be interesting to know which two (anti-freedom, anti-choice) board members voted against this charter renewal. Not that knowing that would probably make any difference to the clueless and equally anti-freedom low-information radical leftist voters who elected them.
I’m genuinely surprised. This must be the classic case of a blind squirrel finding an acorn
Thank you ASD school board members who voted for this 10 year extension. You did the right thing. This is one of the best education business models the ASD has and it shows in excellent student achievement. Way to go FPCS parents and students!
I’m sure there are many that voted for it with gritted teeth. Hard to deny the results of success and the testimonies, but I bet there are some that really want to and would if they could figure out a way to.
Awesome!! Maybe Anchorage is getting the idea of the RIGHT thing to do. There is hope out there afterall.
There is a glimmer of hope from ANC.
Board members uncomfortable about Parents and children fleeing traditional education is should be telling to them that the Public School system is failing todays youth. They should be changing their tune and listen to the parents concern. What a Concept parents engaged in their (emphasized) children’s education.
The Constitution is not a dithering matter. No kid of mine will ever go to public school ever.
Congratulations Family Partnership.
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