Alaska

State lawmakers hear public testimony on possible legislative actions to ruling on homeschooling reimbursements

Published

2 years ago

May 4, 2024

State lawmakers hear public testimony on possible legislative actions to ruling on homeschooling reimbursements

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – As the State of Alaska appeals a ruling that would delay a decision on Alaska’s homeschool correspondence funding until the end of June, public testimony was heard Friday in Juneau on separate House and Senate bills that are viewed as possible, legislative actions to a judge’s ruling.

This is after a Superior Court judge struck down an Alaska law in April that allows parents of homeschooled students to use public dollars for private education purposes, ruling it unconstitutional. Thursday, a judge granted a delay and Friday the State of Alaska appealed Thursday’s delay as the House Education committee asked Alaska correspondence program leaders how their programs work during its invited testimony for for HB 400. Public testimony was also heard on SB 266.

On Thursday Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman issued the short-term stay on his decision, that it is a violation of the state constitution for public funds to be used to reimburse homeschool families expenses at private and religious institutions, putting lawmakers back at work on Friday to explore options for a legislative fix.

With the end of session less than two weeks away, the chairs of House Education and Senate Education said Thursday they want to get legislation passed before the end of session to provide a level of security for Alaska’s correspondence programs. Interior Distance Education of Alaska Homeschool Director Dean O’Dell showed support for HB-400. The bill would adopt regulations for individual learning plans, monitor allotments and perform annual reports for accountability.

Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill allows for unused reimbursement funds to be rolled over. O’Dell said IDEA checks to make sure families are being reimbursed for expenses that were authorized by the students’ individual learning plans. O’Dell said travel reimbursements are prohibited by the school’s local board until it’s for something specific such as a competition. O’Dell was asked why that should be an allowed expense.

“Literature organizers, in-state travel to competitions and other items are commonly provided in schools,” O’Dell said. “Among those unintended consequences, a prohibition on many of these items, including PE equipment will negatively impact rural students for more than our urban students, creating serious equity issues.”

Brian Rozell, principal of Cyberlynx Homeschool and Correspondence program, was read a memo sent in 2022.

“I’ll just read you the line that’s concerning,” said House Education co-chair Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna. “It says, ‘and be reimbursed for their private school tuition to the amount of their student allotment. I think that might give the indication that someone would be using their allotment or tuition for what they could for their tuition.”

Rozell said the memo was written in the “very early days” of his school’s understanding of what is an allowable expense under the process, telling lawmakers tuition is no longer an allowable reimbursement under his school’s program, but he, like others who testified, doesn’t see anything wrong with a family being reimbursed for a student enrolling in a non-sectarian class at a private school.

Rep. Andi Story, D- Juneau, said she found that confusing.

“I would think as the correspondence program, you would see they’re enrolled in that private school, and you would think, “Oh, that is part of what they’re getting from being enrolled in tuition,’ so I would think it would be something that you would not approve.”

Lawmakers were going through amendments late into Friday as the bill remained in committee.

One of the amendments from Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, N/A Sitka, would prevent allotments to be used for services provided to a student from a family member.

Senate Version

The Senate homeschool funding bill would repeal the current language the judge cited in his initial decision that the funding uses are unconstitutional. The bill would also reinstate components of 2005 and 2008 correspondence study program regulatory packages promoted by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

Changing the term “allotment” to “fund account,” the bill still authorizes correspondence programs to provide students with monies to pay for academic instruction and materials and stipulates that funds cannot be used for private and religious school education expenses. The bill also removes the blanket opt-out provisions of statewide assessment and prevents allotments of education funds from being rolled over.

Those in opposition spoke out about the bill removing rules allowing families the ability to opt-out of statewide assessments, the bill preventing any remaining reimbursement money from being rolled over and restrictive language related to allowable expenses and private tutoring.

“My son enrolled in 2015, and I have been saving up his allotment for him to take higher education classes, pilot training, whatever he wants. We have $15,000 saved up,” parent Maria Michalski said, Palmer.

Larry Sloan, Homer, spoke in support of the Senate bill.

“I do support this proposed bill because it does help to clarify a central, political social issue of our time, which is a so-called wall of separation between church and state,” Sloan said

There were more public testifiers who spoke in favor of the House bill versus the Senate bill.

SB-266 is is in the Senate Education committee where members have more amendments to introduce.

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Alaska

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

12 minutes ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

12 hours ago

February 27, 2026

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Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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Alaska

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

iStock / Getty Images

This is a tax tutorial for gubernatorial candidates, for legislators who will report to work next year and for the Alaska public.

Think of it as homework, with more than eight months to complete the assignment that is not due until the November election. The homework is intended to inform, not settle the debate over a state sales tax or state income tax — or neither, which is the preferred option for many Alaskans.

But for those Alaskans willing to consider a tax as a personal responsibility to help fund schools, roads, public safety, child care, state troopers, prisons, foster care and everything else necessary for healthy and productive lives, someday they will need to decide on a state income tax or a state sales tax after they accept the checkbook reality that oil and Permanent Fund earnings are not enough.

This homework assignment is intended to get people thinking with facts, not emotions. Electing the right candidates will be the first test.

Alaskans have until the next election because nothing will change this year. It will take a new political alignment led by a reality-based governor to organize support in the Legislature and among the public.

But next year, maybe, with the right elected leadership, Alaskans can debate a state sales tax or personal income tax. Plus, of course, corporate taxes and oil production taxes, but those are for another school day.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of a state sales tax is that visitors would pay it. Yes, they would, but not as much as many Alaskans think.

Air travel is exempt from sales taxes. So are cruise ship tickets. That’s federal law, which means much of what tourists spend on their Alaska vacation is beyond the reach of a state sales tax.

Cutting further into potential revenues, state and federal law exempts flightseeing tours from sales tax, which is a particularly costly exemption when you think about how much visitors spend on airplane and helicopter tours.

That leaves sales tax supporters collecting from tourists on T-shirts, gifts for grandchildren, artwork, postcards, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals and restaurant meals. Still a substantial take for taxes, but far short of total tourism spending.

An argument against a state sales tax is that more than 100 cities and boroughs already depend on local sales taxes to pay for schools and other public services. Try to imagine what a state tax piled on top of a local tax would do to kill shopping in Homer, already at 7.85%, or Kodiak, Wrangell and Cordova, all at 7%, and all the other municipalities.

Supporters of an income tax say it would share the responsibility burden with nonresidents who earn income in Alaska and then return home to spend their money.

Almost one in four workers in Alaska in 2024 were nonresidents, as reported by the state Department of Labor in January. That doesn’t include federal employees, active-duty military or self-employed people.

Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar covered in the report.

However, many of those nonresident workers are lower-wage and seasonal, employed in the seafood processing and tourism industries, unlikely to pay much in income taxes. But a tax could be structured so that they pay something, which is fair.

Meanwhile, higher-wage workers in oil and gas, mining, construction and airlines (freight and passenger service) would pay taxes on their income earned in Alaska, which also is fair.

It comes down to what would direct more of the tax burden to nonresidents: a tax on income or on visitor spending. Wages or wasabi-crusted salmon dinners.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.

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