Advertisement
The development leaves the future of about a dozen public schools where some 3,500 students learn over the Internet from home in question.
Those schools are facing closure after an appeals court in December ruled the state’s largest such school was operating in violation of state’s open-enrollment, charter school and teacher licensing laws. The same logic could be applied to the others.
Supporters have begged lawmakers to keep them open, saying they are vital for students who do not learn well in traditional schools and for parents who want to educate children from home. Students from kindergarten through high school can attend.
Lawmakers responded by crafting a bipartisan agreement, backed by the state’s education superintendent, that would change the laws to allow the schools to remain open but under new rules meant to ensure quality instruction. The schools would continue receiving about $6,000 in tax dollars per student.
But Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle told lawmakers in a letter Monday that he wanted a study of how well students are being served in those schools and a cap on enrollment at the existing level in the meantime. He said the schools must “measure up to the benchmarks we set for all public schools.”
The Democratic-controlled Senate initially voted 17-16 to reject those changes on Tuesday but then accepted them after Democratic Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, flipped his vote.
The changes derail a compromise that had been negotiated between key lawmakers and will face considerable opposition in the Republican-controlled Assembly. After the vote, dozens of students and parents watching the action in the Senate chamber left in anger.
“It’s a very disappointing backtrack on their word,” said Rose Fernandez, president of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families who has four of her own children enrolled in one of the schools. “We took them at their word they would support the bipartisan compromise and we saw that didn’t happen. We feel betrayed.”
She noted students are facing a deadline this month to sign up for the schools under the open-enrollment law and the action creates additional certainty. But she expressed hope that lawmakers could still reach an agreement before they adjourn in coming weeks.
Republicans accused Doyle of bowing to the state’s largest teacher’s union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, a supporter of the governor that has warned virtual schools drain money from traditional public schools. The group brought the lawsuit against the Wisconsin Virtual Academy that spawned December’s landmark court ruling.
Supporters of the schools said the enrollment cap would turn away some students who want the option. The cap would freeze enrollment for two years at next year’s level before allowing enrollment to gradually rise to 4,500 in 2014.
If lawmakers and Doyle do not agree on a fix soon, the schools could start closing as early as next school year.
“What the governor is really saying is ’I want you to lock down virtual charter schools ... and if you don’t do that I am going to burn the schools down’,” said Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon. “This is a special interest group getting its way.”
Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, joined Republicans in questioning why Doyle waited until the last minute to seek changes.
But Doyle said he has questions about whether students receive enough contact with teachers and about the impact of the schools on existing public schools and property taxes. The Legislative Audit Bureau would perform a wide-ranging audit to answer those questions under the changes adopted Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, pointed out after the vote that the cap would still allow enrollment to rise by 30 percent.
“What we just did now is avoid a veto,” he said.
