When the mayor reconvenes people from his Education Summit, some of the recommendations will almost certainly lean toward encouraging private schools. That's a guess, of course, but some of the experts who were here in November would be referred to as "vendors" in other settings. Vouchers and private charters were well represented, but when Anchorage gets ready to ponder ideas, they should remember that some of these are solutions for problems that Anchorage, gratefully, doesn't have.
First, a quick recap of how "private" came to be an answer.
Drop back half a century and cities were the centers of wealth. Public schools were often castles. I went to one back East. The suburbs came and lots of people moved. City schools were overbuilt and under-enrolled and, in many places, left to rot. New suburban schools got built. And when desegregation hit and judges began decreeing consolidation as a solution to "de facto" segregation, we saw the rise of private schools. Some didn't want their kids in desegregated schools, and some didn't want their kids bused to schools that had been allowed to deteriorate.
With many leaders out of the public system there was often a lack of leadership to keep schools up to par. Inner city schools in particular fell into both academic and physical disrepair. The deterioration made it certain that many in the community would keep looking elsewhere, and people without financial choices were literally trapped in a system that most of us would drive away from.
Except, that didn't happen here. Anchorage never really segregated socioeconomically. While there are pockets of people all over town who live very nicely, it's just that -- they live all over. Schools were well funded. Today's homegrown leaders cite very familiar alma maters. You can sometimes tell there's still a bit of football or basketball rivalry just under the surface at an Assembly or School Board meeting.
That's pretty neat. It means the school your kid and my kid go to is the same school those folks in the big houses and fancy cars send their kid to. If they're both smart, they'll sit in the same classrooms, have the same teachers, work on the same problems and they'll know each other for the rest of their lives. Yes, ASD has some lottery programs and not everyone gets in, but they all get to try because they all have the one key requirement it takes to enroll -- they live here.
Private schools are a solution for people who had to flee rotting public systems. Vouchers and public money for private schools were things that happened in communities that gave up. There were some communities that refused to do the work it took to fix their own system, so they just gave parents some money and suggested they go somewhere else. We've gone through fat times and lean, and the overwhelming vote of Anchorage citizens, including those who could easily afford something else, is an ASD school.
As a teacher, it makes me proud. And the fairly recent votes by the community to put one of the nicest new schools in the middle of Muldoon and rebuild Clark Middle School in Mountain View testify to the fact that we're willing to build the whole system -- not just schools in one part of town. Anchorage citizens should give a long, hard think to the consequences of pulling public funding from ASD, not to simply send a student to a private school but to actually fund the construction of a private school system. With all of us involved, it shouldn't have to happen. We can continue to improve the system and it will be for all students.
If you live in Anchorage and you want your children to go to the same schools the most well-off citizens of Anchorage choose, it's really easy. Have them walk out to the street and wait. A yellow bus will come along each day and take them there. No voucher needed.
Andy Holleman is a 25-year Alaskan in his 16th year of teaching and has been politically active on education issues.
By ANDY HOLLEMAN