New school board members were recently elected in Alaska.  One of the incumbents has a couple of issues at the top of his priority list:

Anderson, Navarre take school board seats  Peninsula Clarion October 07, 2009

I think there’s evidence in the national press that there’s a real move to take over a lot of things and nationalize them," he said. "I think we on the Kenai Peninsula know what our students need more than someone in D.C. and I think that will be a real battle."

He said he also wanted to focus attention on charter school and home-school options in the district.

"I have a deep appreciation for the work our teachers at the brick and mortar schools do," he said, "That being said, charter schools and home-schools play an important role in education, and as American citizens we’ve earned the right to have options and freedoms and I don’t think everyone needs to be forced into cookie cutter molds."

There is a "real move [for the government] to take over a lot of things";  including homeschooling.  Since independent homeschoolers - not beholden to the school districts for equipment and resources or accountability-  "play an important role in education, and as American citizens we’ve earned the right to have options and freedoms, let’s keep homeschooling out of the government cookie cutter molds.

It doesn’t make sense to use public school authority to protect true independence of homeschooling. 

Home school: Making the grade? Anchorage Daily News September 12th, 2009

If Alaska parents want to home-school their child, no paperwork needs to be filed, no phone call made. No one need be told.

As for the student, no specific subjects need to be studied, no number of hours need be logged behind a desk, no tests taken.

Alaska has the most lax home-schooling law in the country.

No one even knows how many Alaska children stay home instead of attending a public or private school — they aren’t tracked or monitored.

Home-school advocates say the lack of reporting and regulation is the way it should be because it leaves parents free to make choices for the child. But others say it leaves an uncounted number of children at the mercy of parents who don’t have what it takes to give kids what they need to avoid being left behind in life.

The irony of the Anchorage Daily News’ (ADN) and others‘ concerns listed above are the counted numbers of children who are at the mercy of compulsory attendance laws and schools that have left them behind. 

Alaska’s dropout rate double US average Anchorage Daily News November 16th, 2008

"This is a social issue, one we all own," said Association of Alaska School Boards executive director Carl Rose. "We all need to take some responsibility in this."

Our state has a reported 26% Illinois public school dropout rate.  I find those statistics [pdf] questionable, but the point is made that public schools failed to provide adequate education for over a quarter of IL public school students. 

A no-brainer for education authorities would surely be worrying about their big backyard, while homeschooling parents concern ourselves with ours, along with our beloved children’s education and well being.  But the ADN exhibits "home-schooling" concerns in a series of articles.

Schooled at Home Anchorage Daily News September 15th, 2009

Alaska has some of the most lax home-schooling laws in the nation, according to a report in Sunday’s Daily News. Home schooling can be a highly effective option for educated, motivated parents who have the time and expertise to handle such a profound responsibility. However, our home-schooling laws are so lax, parents don’t even have to notify the state that they have a school-age child whom they are educating at home, let alone show that their children are actually learning anything.

Any time I see the word "lax" used to describe homeschool laws (or lack of those laws), I assume the author has an agenda.  (On a less cynical level, it could be due to a sorry lack of vocabulary skills.) 

Illinois has the same freeing education choices as Alaska.  Illinois homeschoolers don’t report, register or notify to public school authorities. However, we don’t have Alaskan programs like IDEA. Yet.

In a sense every child is home-schooled Anchorage Daily News-an opinion from (using Mr. Anderson’s assumed terminology) a "home-school option" mother, Mary Kancewick.

The article notes concern about isolated Bush families, who lack the multiplicity of opportunities found in urban school districts. That concern would seem to be better addressed by increasing local resources and opportunities than by tightening home-schooling regulations, which in any case would likely be difficult to enforce in isolated rural areas.

It is reasonable for State Education Commissioner Larry LeDoux to take the investigatory step of comparing Permanent Fund dividend records to school records to ascertain how many children are off the state education grid, and where, but he should keep an open mind as to how to address the results of his research.