The Debate Over Virtual Schools Begins: 3,000 Wisconsin Students’ Education in Jeopardy
The Wisconsin State Legislature is set to have a serious debate regarding the future of technology in our K-12 education system. The District 2 Court of Appeals ruling on December 5 in favor of the Madison-based teacher's union, and against innovative Virtual Schools, has set the stage. The Legislature must act. If education laws are not modernized by the Legislature and the court ruling is not overturned, an educational option for 3,000 students will end.
The court ruling is the perfect opportunity for our state to look to the future, and instead of supporting the status quo, embrace technology in education and provide a strong, high-quality educational option for our students. It is time to get our education laws out of the 20th century and take a giant step into the 21st Century. To do this, we must allow the 12 Virtual Schools to flourish and continue promoting them. As the Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, I am ready to take the lead and help move us forward.
By utilizing computers and the Internet, virtual charter schools have become a popular high-quality and efficient alternative education choice for parents and their children. Virtual schools are not for every student and will not replace our traditional bricks and mortar schools. But they are a wonderful way to bring an effective, new style of learning to both gifted and special needs students.
This education issue should not be a partisan one. That's why I made a good faith effort to work with Senator John Lehman (D-Racine), the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, to find a way we can resolve our differences. Unfortunately, Senator Lehman was unwilling to compromise and he recently introduced a bill that goes well beyond the scope of addressing the court case.
The bill introduced by Senator Lehman would cut funding to virtual schools by 50 percent. Under current law, virtual schools are already receiving only half the funding that brick and mortar schools are. In fact, a 2006 national study illustrates the cost to educate a student in a virtual school and a traditional brick and mortar school is similar. In addition to the funding cut, Senator Lehman’s bill also imposes arbitrary enrollment restrictions, which would result in fewer virtual schools for parents to choose from.
Along with State Representative Dan LeMahieu (R-Cascade), I have been working with school districts, parents, and teachers from all over the state in an attempt to craft a bill that will allow virtual schools to continue operating by addressing the issues raised by the Court of Appeals. This legislation will truly protect virtual schools and allow them to continue their unique and innovative role in our education system.
Virtual schools need to remain an option for parents and students across Wisconsin. I look forward to the public debate on this issue during the weeks ahead.
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absolutely they do. Good Work Brett.
ReplyDeleteI have read that the funding proposal is to cut virtual school funding from $6,000 per student to $3000 per student. This seems to indicate that the virtual schools are NOT "already receiving only half the funding that brick and mortar schools are." $6000 per student is close to the current STATE funding for each student in a traditional school, with the balance of approximately $4000 supplied locally and federally.
ReplyDeleteVirtual schools, by definition, are probably missing the local contribution for each student, thereby making the 50% cut in state funding seem more draconian. However, virtual schools do not require maintenance of rooves, boilers, shoveling of sidewalks or paying of heat and electricity. Their overhead is very much reduced compared to a "brick and mortar" school. I am not well informed about the funding stream of virtual schools, but logic dictates that virtual schools ought to be able to competantly run a lot less expensively than traditional schools. I suspect that the real outrage originates from the profit margins of these virtual schools being so dramatically reduced. The discussion would be better based on a representative budget of these schools to see how the money is distributed as opposed to a knee jerk reaction for or against the proposal, depending on one's opinion of the DPI's backing of the legislation. Maybe Rep. Davis could provide further example budget information to better inform us of the issues.
virtual schools also have not tried to stick a 4 k program into a budget that is already stretched.
ReplyDeleteVirtual schools also do not have more educational assistants, and ' helpers' in the office than one would think possible.
Virtual schools beyond money offer more educational benefits than what public schools can offer.
Many plus's and a great alternative to public schools.