Alaska Dispatch

One of the big concerns surfacing about Gov. Sean Parnell's proposal to offer merit-based scholarships to Alaska high school graduates bound for the state's universities and job training programs is a core curriculum requirement.

There's some question as to whether the core classes that students would have to take in order to meet eligibility for the Governor's Performance Scholarship are available throughout the state, especially in rural areas where class sizes and offerings can be pretty small.

The House Education Committee is going to look into that a bit on Wednesday morning with a round-table presentation by Alaska Education Commissioner Larry LeDoux. He'll go over existing on-line high school programs and talk about possible expansions that could make a wider variety of courses available to students anywhere in the state.

In exchange for a 50 percent to full tuition scholarship, based on grades, students would have to take at least four years each of math, language arts (English, once upon a time), and science, plus three years of social studies.

Parnell's plan, in bill form, is available online as House Bill 297 or Senate Bill 224.