Valley state senator seeks to clarify ‘school choice’ position

WASILLA — Taking lumps in the debate over a constitutional amendment regarding school funding, state Sen. Mike Dunleavy wants to put his position on the record.

“Too many folks are assuming things,” he said at a Friday meeting of the Frontiersman editorial board.

The assumptions are over what exactly the intent is of a proposed amendment to the Alaska Constitution he’s pushing in the Senate and his Valley colleague, Rep. Wes Keller, originated in the House. The amendment would remove language barring tax dollars from going to private or religious schools.

Though Keller bristles at the term, saying it’s too early to discuss them, others among the Valley’s delegation seem to see it as a school voucher bill.

As for Dunleavy, he said he supports the idea of voucher systems — school choice as he calls it — but not just any voucher system and certainly not one without oversight. Students, he said, are already taking classes from private or religious institutions. He said he wants to clarify in law that the practice is acceptable and expand it further to add classes offered at private and religious schools to the smorgasbord of educational offerings available to Alaska public school students.

Students now take one or two classes from those types of schools; a class from Brigham Young University, for instance, or one from Sylvan Learning Center. In theory, Dunleavy said, he would be OK with it if a student wound up taking all of his classes from a parochial school, paying for them with public money.

But that, in Dunleavy’s ideal system, would only be possible through an “individual learning plan” that would bring accountability to the process. He sees that as just expanding choices.

“I am absolutely a choice, multiple-model individual,” he said.

He said he’s working on a companion piece of legislation to the constitutional amendment that would spell out what he envisions a voucher system would look like.

“I am not for directly funding a private or parochial school,” he said.

First of all, he said, he doubts those institutions would want to be under the thumb of government. Secondly, public dollars should go for a public purpose, Dunleavy said. In this case, the public good is an educated citizenry and oversight through those learning plans, Dunleavy said, can achieve that.

“The state absolutely should and, under my world would, demand a public outcome,” Dunleavy said. “That is the most important thing, … that outcome.”

He said he believes in public education. He made his career in public education. His kids attend public schools.

“The public education works for the majority of people,” Dunleavy said.

But he said his concern is for students who it doesn’t reach.

He said he’s heard questions about whether this sort of change could lead to some sort of madrasa training public school terrorists. Maybe it could, Dunleavy said. He acknowledged that the constitutional change in Senate Joint Resolution 9 would allow for such a possibility.

“I don’t see that materializing,” Dunleavy said. “The chances of something more positive coming out of this is greater.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.