This story is republished from dermotcole.com with permission.
The Christian school run by the church formerly known as the Anchorage Baptist Temple says it is the largest private K-12 school in Anchorage.
Mountain City Church, which adopted that name to get away from the word temple, runs what is now called the Mountain City Christian Academy, formerly the Anchorage Christian School.
The approach used by the church-owned school to get state funds for private education provides what may be the most powerful evidence to back up the claim by attorney Scott Kendall that the correspondence school law struck down Friday created a “shadow voucher” program.
“What is prevented here is this purchasing from outside vendors that have essentially contorted the correspondence school program into a shadow school voucher program,” he told the Alaska Beacon Friday. “So that shadow school voucher program that was in violation of the Constitution, as of today, with the stroke of a pen, is dead.”
Mountain City Christian Academy used the public correspondence school set up by the Denali Borough to automatically direct state payments to families of the church-run school. Families were required to take action on their own if they wanted to reject the state payments.
“MCCA partners with Denali Peak Correspondence School. As a PEAK Partner, MCCA students are automatically enrolled at Denali Peak, simplifying the enrollment, grade, and receipt submission process. This collaboration provides families with a reimbursement check of up to $3,000 per student to help cover their child’s academic expenses. Families may opt out of this partnership,” the private schools says.
Other private schools don’t automatically enroll students in Denali PEAK or other public correspondence programs, but provide instructions on how to participate in the educational allotment program that has now been held unconstitutional.
There are more than 30 correspondence programs competing for a slice of the homeschool market, with many of the programs trying to attract families based on the size of the allotment and services offered by the schools.
It’s not clear what happens next, though the Dunleavy administration will certainly appeal the loss and try to get a court order to continue to fund existing programs during the appeal.
The Legislature could act to restrict programs so that public funds don’t go to pay for private schools — as the Constitution requires — and vendors are limited to public entities, but the philosophical split between the House and the Senate makes that unlikely to happen quickly, which will add to the uncertainty.
That even Sen. Mike Dunleavy knew a decade ago that his plan to direct public funds to private schools was unconstitutional is important to note, regardless of the claim by the Dunleavy administration that what Sen. Dunleavy thought is irrelevant.
Dermot Cole has worked as a newspaper reporter, columnist and author in Alaska for more than 40 years. Support his work here.