School: The Official Scoop

The 2014-2015 public school year started today for 40,000 students in grades 2 to 12 in the Anchorage School District (ASD). Next week 8,000 kindergarten and first graders will join the other students. Our little Genevieve is officially enrolled in ASD this year as a second grader in Family Partnership Charter School (FPCS) which is a charter school for homeschoolers. She doesn't leave home to attend school, but she is an ASD student. FPCS is her mother's alma mater.

Jake and Bentley are enrolled with Raven Correspondence School (RCS) in second and third grades. This is Bentley's fourth year with RCS. RCS is part of the Yukon Koyukuk School District. Why have two children in one school and one in another? It all comes down to the money. FPCS radically raised their student funding this year making them hard to resist.

If you live in Alaska and you homeschool, there are many options open to you. If you join a correspondence school based in bush (i.e. remote) Alaska, you can generally expect a minimum of oversight. Many homeschooling parents like minimal interference from public school authorities, so correspondence schools are very popular. Every program is different, so Kara had to do a lot of research to determine which school(s) suited our family best.

In the past FPCS was not on Kara's short list because their funding wasn't substantially more than the bush correspondence schools whereas their oversight was much, much higher. They had rules upon rules that limited the way you could spend your child's funding. However, FPCS has a new principal and consequently the rules--and funding amounts--changed. 

Why not put all three children in FPCS if it's such a great choice? It's not that straightforward. Raven pays for Internet without charging it against student allotments so that's an additional $600+. Computers are paid back on a three year plan and our family is on the third year of that pay back, so leaving the school means forfeiting the third payment. Raven will pay for the boys' karate and FPCS will not because the dojo isn't an approved vendor. To become approved vendors must meet certain requirements which not all small businesses are able or willing to meet. Viva's gymnastics club is an approved vendor.

Course materials purchased through Raven are yours to keep, but materials purchased through FPCS must be given back to the school when you leave. Owning school materials is a plus. When you are finished with them you can sell them and use the funds to purchase other school materials. On the other hand, FPCS has a really nice library of returned school materials you can check out so you don't have to spend your school funds on them. That is a big savings--if they have the materials you want! 

When comparing homeschool charter schools and correspondence schools many different factors must be looked at and evaluated. As the rules and funding change, so might the decision of which program is best. Our decision for the 2014-2015 school year is: Viva with FPCS and Jake and Bentley with RCS.