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Alaska鈥檚 Supreme Court justices on Friday that struck down key components of the state鈥檚 correspondence school program.

Nearly 23,000 homeschool students may continue to use their allotments of state education money to pay for private school tuition until the Anchorage Superior Court reconsiders the case.

The Supreme Court made its decision a day after oral arguments in an appeal of the ruling in State of Alaska, Department of Education and Early Development v. Alexander, in which plaintiffs argued that it is unconstitutional for public education money to be spent on private school tuition.

The justices explained that they issued a quickly to avoid affecting thousands of students鈥� education and will complete a formal ruling later.

Supreme Court justices agreed with the state鈥檚 hired lawyer, Elbert Lin, that the lower court wrongly decided the state鈥檚 statute was unconstitutional in its entirety. They said state law could be preserved 鈥渂ecause there are many constitutionally permissible uses of allotment funds.鈥�

They sent the ruling back and directed the Superior Court to consider whether spending is unconstitutional on a case-by-case basis. That could mean individual districts, which are directly responsible for monitoring allotment spending, would be the defendants, rather than the Department of Education and Early Development. The justices wrote that they could not make such a ruling now because no districts were present, or joined in the lawsuit, at the time of the appeal.

They also directed the Superior Court to consider a group of correspondence families鈥� argument that the U.S. Constitution requires the state to allow families to use allotments on private school tuition.

Both the state and the parents who use state money to send their children to private schools asked the court to decide whether it is constitutional for families to spend the homeschool allotment on full-time private school tuition.

鈥淲e decline to make such a ruling at this point,鈥� the justices wrote, and explained that the issue did not come up in the original case and neither plaintiffs nor the correspondence families submitted arguments about it in their appeal.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Education Commissioner Deena Bishop and Attorney General Trag Taylor praised the decision. 鈥淭he Alaska Supreme Court clearly saw the flaws in the prior decision and in the plaintiffs鈥� arguments,鈥� said Taylor in a news release.  鈥淭o strike down the entire statutory scheme on the allegations of one type of unconstitutional spending does not comport with the laws of statutory and constitutional interpretation. Statutes are presumed constitutional and there must be a high bar to strike them down. This is a win for the rule of law as well as Alaskan families.鈥�

wife Jodi Taylor wrote a step-by-step of how families can use allotments for classes at private schools.

Scott Kendall, attorney for the plaintiffs, said the justice鈥檚 decision may not be what he wanted, but he feels confident about the case.

鈥淭hey were much more concerned with the procedural aspects of their case, not the substance,鈥� he said.

When the Superior Court reconsiders the case, the plaintiffs could  identify a district that allows correspondence allotments. Kendall said that a school district may even seek to join the case of its own volition, to argue that its practices should be allowed.

鈥淚 am not a betting man, but if I was, I would bet big money on the fact that you cannot constitutionally spend public funds through a correspondence program for tuition at a private school,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just going to take us just a bit longer to reach that ultimate outcome.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on and .

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