A group of Alaska families announced Thursday they have brought the Institute for Justice to defend them against the National Education Association’s lawsuit that seeks to end public funding of the state’s correspondence school program.
The NEA has sued the state over state statute over private online schools. The lawsuit would impact over 20,000 students in the correspondence program, as almost all students in the correspondence program use the private option. Raven, Family Partnership, and others would be swept up and defunded, if NEA has its way. The NEA lawsuit impacts over 20 percent of Alaska students, including students that use online classes.
It’s not just Holy Rosary Academy — it is everybody in private schools, home schools and correspondent programs. The irony is that two years ago, during the Covid pandemic when all public schools around the state closed, the state sought help from a Florida-based online school that was able to scale up to absorb students during the final spring quarter of 2020. The state paid for the enrollment of students in the Florida Virtual School to keep children from falling behind.
The NEA lawsuit seeks to end the ability to use correspondence school allotments for private educational services like the Florida Virtual School or the dozens of programs in Alaska.
See some of the private and correspondence schools impacted by the NEA lawsuit here.
“Alaska’s correspondence study program has produced massive educational benefits for Alaska’s children,” said Institute for Justice Attorney David Hodges. “We’re prepared to defend the rights of all Alaska families to get the educational services that best fit their unique needs.”
As a sparsely populated state, Alaska faces unique challenges in ensuring that all children can receive an education. To address this concern, the state created “correspondence programs,” in which a student’s public school used the post office or float planes to deliver lessons to students across the state and then pick up and grade assignments. In 1997, this law was broadened to allow parents more ability to design their children’s curriculum and receive reimbursement for certain educational expenses. Then, in 2014, the law was broadened even further to allow correspondence schools to reimburse parents if they chose to send their students to nonpublic schools.
“The Alaska correspondence school program helped me find the school that works best for my son,” said Andrea Moceri, one of the parents teaming up with Institute for Justice. “I am defending this program so that every Alaska family has access to the best education possible for their children.”
Institute for Justice is the leader in defending school choice programs throughout the country. In 2020, Institute for Justice won a case before the United States Supreme Court which held that a state does not need to subsidize private education, but that once it chooses to do so it cannot discriminate against a school solely because it is religious.
Two years later, Institute for Justice won another landmark case before the nation’s highest court, which established that Maine’s exclusion of religious schools from its tuitioning program violated the Constitution.
Earlier this year, Institute for Justice intervened in a New Hampshire case to defend the popular Education Freedom Account Program, which allows families to use public funds on various educational expenses.
