Wisconsin virtual schools

In what’s believed to be the first ruling of its kind in the United States, the 2nd District Court of Appeals in Wisconsin last month ordered the state to stop funding the Wisconsin Virtual Academy, bringing focus to bear on a national policy debate as to whether virtual schools qualify for public funding or relegate to home schooling at parental expense. ( MSNBC )( Local )

In a 148-page report issued last November, the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) stated that “42 states in the nation have significant supplemental online learning programs (in which students enrolled in physical schools take one or two courses online), or significant full-time programs (in which students take most or all of their courses online, or both. Only eight states – most of them on the east coast -- do not have either, although several of those have begun planning for online learning development as well.”

Ohio is one of those states having a fairly large number of online charter schools; Kentucky boasts the Kentucky Virtual High School and a district program in Jefferson County.

The Report also notes that while new online programs are being developed every year & the total number growing, “a small number have attracted attention from policymakers due to questions about finances, quality, and ways in which those programs adhere to existing laws & regulations.” That was essentially the case in Wisconsin.

“People are paying attention because online learning is really a growing phenomena,” Susan Patrick, president of NACOL, told MSNBC news yesterday. “For us to arbitrarily shut down online learning for students is a really dangerous precedent to set.”

Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Richard Brown in the decision wrote that the Court’s role was “not to weigh public policies, but to interpret statutes,” and agreed the school may well be a welcomed new option for parents who for any number of reasons wanted their children to have a home-based education and be a benefit children who wouldn’t do as well in traditional settings, but that it was “also a public school operated with state funds , and its operation violates the statutes as they’re now written.” (Court’s Ruling )

Online charter schools in Indiana, similarly, were denied state funding by legislation early last Spring.