Alaska
Unparalleled Freedom vs. New I.D.E.A.
On June 4, 1997, Alaska enacted the best home school law in the nation. Alaska’s law has no teaching qualifications for parents, no regulation at any level of government, no notice to anyone of the parents’ decision to conduct the home education, no registration with the state, no reporting to anyone of any information about the home education program, no testing of the children, no required subjects, and no evaluation of the program by anyone.
Despite having such an excellent law, many home schooling families are choosing to enroll their children in a public school program known as Interior Distance Education of Alaska (I.D.E.A.). Interestingly, this statewide program of correspondence study from the Galena School District was begun in June of 1997, just at the time that the new home school law was enacted. According to the information disseminated by Galena School District, the desire of the public school officials is “to provide educational, emotional, intellectual, and financial support to those who would like to work in partnership with a public school district.”
Families who enroll their children in I.D.E.A. are provided curriculum materials, use of a computer with access to the Internet, and assistance from a certified teacher, among other services. However, public funds may not be used to purchase curriculum materials for teaching core subjects if the materials are distinctively religious in content. (Ironically, one of the reasons most often given by parents who have decided to teach their children at home is that they object to the atheistic content of public school curricula.) Additionally, students in grades 4, 8, and 11 must take the standardized tests that Alaska uses for public school students at a test site designated by public school officials, and the tests must be administered by a certified teacher approved by the Galena School District. All I.D.E.A. students are required to take any assessment mandated by the Alaska State Department of Education of public school students in grades 5, 7, and 10. As further evaluation of the student, each parent must report to Galena School District the progress of all students each semester. High school students are required to submit to a yearly interview with a representative from I.D.E.A. in order to establish a transcript.
Since I.D.E.A. is a full-time public school program, families enrolling their children in it are not eligible for membership in Home School Legal Defense Association. We encourage our member families in Alaska to take advantage of the tremendous unparalleled freedom they now have to teach their children at home without any government oversight or interference. The Alaska law is a model for every other state in the nation to follow, especially if it can be shown to other legislatures that parents are successful in educating their children without more restrictive requirements of state law.
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Alaska
Admitted to statehood:
January 3, 1959
Origin of name:
Russian version of an Aleutian (Eskimo) word alakshak, for
“peninsula,” “great lands,” or “land that is not an island.”
Motto:
North to the future.
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