Alaska House and Senate committees on Friday introduced bills intended to allow homeschool and correspondence programs to continue operating constitutionally.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman earlier in the month struck down as unconstitutional two statutes enacted in 2014 that allowed public funds to be spent at private and religious schools in Alaska. Those statutes explicitly prevented the state Board of Education from enacting regulations restricting how homeschool allotments are used. The Legislature's attorneys suggested earlier in the week that a relatively simple change of state law could resolve the court's concerns.

The Senate Education Committee, chaired by Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, introduced a bill Friday that explicitly prohibits state funds from being used at private schools. It also requires stricter oversight and reporting on how homeschool funds are spent.

"The stipulations in the legislation provide those guardrails so that there will not be, and should not be, unconstitutional expenditures," she said.

The two homeschool statutes the court struck down were proposed by then-Sen. Mike Dunleavy and adopted in 2014. They have been increasingly used by parents to pay for tuition at private and religious schools. But the extent of the practice is not fully known.

The Senate bill mentions that some private tutoring could be allowed. But it does prohibit public funds being used to pay for one or two classes at a private or religious school, which had been seen as a gray area after the court's decision.

The state Board of Education, which regulates education in Alaska, would be directed to create "a more rigid approval program" for course materials to ensure they're constitutional, Tobin said. The board is next scheduled to meet in Kotzebue in June.

Under the Senate bill, parents of public school students would be prevented from opting their children out of statewide assessments. According to the state Department of Education and Early Development, 93.6% of students at neighborhood schools took recent statewide tests. Around 19% of correspondence students took the same assessments.

"It is our obligation to ensure that our public education programs are being held accountable. This is one of the strongest accountability tools that we have in our toolkit," Tobin said about statewide testing.

The House Education Committee introduced a similar bill Friday, with prohibitions on public funds being used at private schools. But it would allow parents to opt out of state assessments.

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