Bill proposes tracking all Alaska kids

A bill introduced by Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Kenai, has many home schooling parents in the Mat-Su Valley extremely upset. Chenault's bill, House Bill 437, would assign a tracking number to every Alaskan child between the ages of 5 and 16 in order to make sure every child -- in the public education system or out of it -- is getting an education.

Chenault's staffers promise the bill is not aimed at restricting the freedom of home schoolers. Home schooling parents, however, don't see it that way.

Craig W. Mischenko, president of the Alaska Private and Home Educators Association, calls the bill "an intrusive and intolerable incursion on their privacy."

Rep. Chenault could not be reached for comment after multiple attempts. However a staffer, asking to remain anonymous, provided some background. "This is not intended to infringe upon the rights of any child or parent," she said. "It is just to assure that every child is afforded the right to an education."

The staffer asked to remain anonymous because, she said, the office had received several phone calls she described as threatening. "We've never had a bill raise so much concern," she said.

The staffer said she herself proposed the bill to the representative after a young man from the Kenai area came to the representative's office, stating he had been home schooled, but that somewhere along the line, his parents had "dropped the ball," that the young man had not received a diploma and was now working in another state, stuffing newspaper inserts. She said she had also spoken with a man long associated with education in the Kenai area, who said there was "a huge problem" with similar situations.

Chenault's staffers claim to know of 176 such cases. However, they would not say how they arrived at that number, stating in part, that was due to confidentiality. "These are kids that have not received an education," the staffer said.

Such a number is extremely difficult to verify. Harry Gamble, public information officer for the Alaska Department of Education, said the state keeps no records of students not enrolled in the public school system. That is because of current law, he said.

"A few years ago, the Legislature created an exemption -- actually they created several -- to the Compulsory Attendance Act. And one of those exemptions was that students are exempt from the act if they are being schooled by their parent or guardian."

Gamble said since there is no compulsory attendance for such students, there is "really no way for us to know" how many children in Alaska are even home schooled. However, the state does track the approximately 9,500 students who are currently enrolled in correspondence courses throughout the state, which allow students to be taught at home.

In other words, as Mischenko points out, the state is already tracking all children enrolled both in public schools and home schooled through correspondence courses, which together comprise the vast majority of children in Alaska. This bill, he said, "would needlessly -- and expensively -- duplicate existing information systems that the Department of Education and Early Development already has in place …"

Furthermore, Mischenko believes the state is hardly in a position to question the education of home-schooled students. "At a time when the failures of the public education system and its extreme difficulties with setting and achieving basic education standards in this state are well-documented … It's a little like the pot calling the kettle black," he said.

The Dept. of Education does track the number of public school students that drop out of school, Gamble said. "Over time, it's a pretty big number. Part of it is, if they're over 16, they're not subject to compulsory school attendance."

According to Dept. of Education statistics for the year 2000 (the most recent information available), 3,704 students (6.2 percent) dropped out of public school grades 7-12 statewide.

"Today, Alaska's public education system is failing miserably to set and achieve basic education standards in their own schools, and our state is struggling to control expenses," Mischenko said. "It seems ridiculous, then, to ask our Legislature to spend money to regulate and limit the freedom of private home schooling families. It is a slap in the face to a group of dedicated people who have for several decades been producing some of the finest students in the country at virtually no public expense."

Chenault has dealt with the concept of tracking home schooled students before. He was a member of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, and was present on Sept. 11, 2000, when the board approved a resolution "to address accountability for home-schooled students." The resolution they approved mirrored one adopted that year (and subsequent years) by the Alaska Association of School Boards.

The AASB resolution -- which is also on the group's 2004 core priority list -- goes further than HB 437 currently proposes, in that it seeks not only to track attendance of home-schooled students, but their progress and achievement "in essential skills" as well. "Parents of such students should be required to provide information regarding instruction of and progress of their children … to provide accountability that essential skills are being taught and learned," the resolution stated.

Many, like Mischenko, feel HB 437 is merely a first step in that direction. "People say, what does it matter [if all children are tracked] … the problem is, as soon as you do that, you allow them to decide what is education. Somehow, they will have to verify that all these children are getting a proper education. So someone will have to come up with a definition of what a proper education is," he said.

Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, who heads the House Committee of Education, said in the past few days his office has received "hundreds, multiples of hundreds" of phone calls, e-mails, letters, postcards and even in-person visits from constituents concerned over HB 437.

"It became so many," Gatto said, "we decided to use a canned response," adding he simply didn't have enough hours in a day to answer each personally.

However, Gatto said he spoke with Chenault, who indicated he may withdraw the bill at some point in the future.

The bill was scheduled for a hearing in the Education Committee Tuesday, but was postponed after Chenault proposed a pared-down version meant to simplify the bill. It read: "The Department of Education shall develop and design a tracking system for all Alaskan children of school age for the sole purpose of insuring each child is being afforded an education."

On Wednesday, Chenault's staffer said the bill would be scheduled for another hearing some time next week.