Superintendent proposes 'dramatic restructuring' to homeschool program in Mat-Su

Homeschools and correspondence schools were the focus of Dr. Randy Trani’s Superintendent Update during the meeting of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) school board meeting last week as he presented a plan to address lagging graduation and state assessment numbers from students attending homeschools and correspondence schools.

“Homeschool is really popular in our Borough, and really popular in the state of Alaska, and it’s growing everywhere. So the question is how can we grow our homeschool population, and simultaneously maintain high levels of student achievement for all students?” Dr. Trani asked at the January 15 meeting.

“We are a good district. We have a very good homeschool program. But if we want to make it better, we have to change something, and change is hard,” he said before proposing some changes to the homeschool program.

Under Dr. Trani’s proposed plan, there would be a “dramatic restructuring,” creating two schools through board action.

First would be the “MSCS Hybrid Learning Academy” that would be a hybrid model in which student would need to attend a traditional brick-and-mortar school in person for some of time, while also participating in homeschooling learning at home. It would maintain the requirements needed for a MSBSD high school diploma.

In this model, scheduling for staff and students would need to be restructured, possibly looking at six or seven days a week, or adding evening hours.

The other option would be the “Alaska Central Correspondence,” which would meet the state minimums for a high school diploma and would maintain a structure similar to the correspondence programs already in use.

Of interest to many parents is the allotments for their students attending these new proposed schools. Students enrolled in the new hybrid program would no longer receive the state homeschool allotment, which, depending on their grade level, is currently set at almost $3,000 for MCSC students.

Those registered with the correspondence program would continue to receive the allotment and could cross-enroll in the hybrid program to access classes.

Dr. Trani’s proposal would need the approval of the school board as well as from Alaska Department of Education. If approved, he says that the programs could begin as early the next school year. Both programs would be housed at the new Mat-Su Central School, which is nearing completion in Palmer.

There are several reasons Dr. Trani is proposing changes to the correspondence program, among them is a projected funding deficit of $22 million next year if operations are maintained at current levels. The preliminary 2026 budget to maintain current services is about $287.9 million. Proposed budget cuts will be announced this spring.

Another concern for Dr. Trani is the low graduation rate among students who choose a correspondence school. District-wide, the graduation rate is 86%, higher than the state average. Conversely, the graduation rate for MSCS is 73%, the lowest of the schools in the MSBSD, though MSCS had one of the largest graduating classes in the district.

Currently, students attending MSBSD homeschools must meet higher credit requirements than other correspondence schools across the state, with 25.5 credits for MSBSD, while other programs only need 21 or 22 credits to graduate. But Dr. Trani was quick to caution that there could be a lack of consistency from homeschools to their counterparts at traditional schools.

“We aren’t being consistent from one school to another…but our diploma says that we are. So people think they might be getting the same thing when they aren’t.”

Dr. Trani also hit on the low attendance and scores on statewide assessments, asserting that students within the MSBSD who attend or did attend correspondence schools tend to lag behind their non-correspondence peers on most assessments.

He said that only 10% of the students attending Mat-Su Central School (MSCS) took part in the AK Star Assessments, the second lowest only to CyberLynx Correspondence School, while 78% of students attending brick-and-mortar schools in the MSBSD participated.

“This is not an indictment of our correspondence school, or correspondence schools in general,” he said. “What I’m showing is that we have a problem systemically.”

Enrollment across MSBSD this year is down roughly 300 students from what had been projected, and Dr. Trani believes it is because they are attending correspondence schools. “More of them are in correspondence than ever,” he noted with more than 3,000 students, 18% of eligible MSBSD students, choosing to utilize the option versus traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Additionally, Dr. Trani reported that approximately an additional 3,000 from across the MSBSD were enrolled in other statewide correspondence school programs.

“Growing up in Alaska, homeschools is an important part of our landscape,” he said, recognizing the popular option that homeschools provide not just here in the Mat-Su Borough, but across the state. Among the benefits of homeschooling is the parent-student engagement.

“That’s where parents have the absolute, most engagement with their students’ education,” which aligns with the superintendents goals for the district, to increase engagement between parents and the schools for the best outcomes in regards to student education.

Dr. Trani did offer a proposal for incremental changes that might not be as shocking, but that would continue along the same trajectory that those programs are already on, with smaller changes such as changing the focus of existing programs or finding creative solutions for CTE and advanced courses.

“It’s better than staying where we are, but I don’t think it fundamentally changes our approach.”

He said that he believes that the MSBSD homeschool is one of the best and that if no changes are made, that students will still get one of the best educations they can in a homeschool in the state of Alaska.

The next meeting of the MSBSD school board will be held February 5 at the Administration Building in Palmer.