text: This is the exact conversation that we need to have with my friends with good intentions at Great Alaska Schools. For years they have advocated for a more expensive version of a failing K-12 status quo, with no other solutions to offer. 
  
  Alaska is still #2  in the US in the per capita cost of K-12, (even when we adjust for the high cost of living in Alaska) and early childhood literacy (the most important mission of any school system) is still in crisis. 
  
  
  We spend way too much on building and bureaucracies in K-12 in Alaska and that robs resources from effective operations. Despite our beautiful school buildings, in 4th grade (around age 10), our kids are two school years behind the 2015 NAEP reading achievement of states that spend half as much as us.  
  
  
  The 34 states that already have private school choice options for parents have two things in common: They spend much less per capita on K-12 than Alaska and have much better early childhood literacy-- for kids rich and poor.