From the Palm Beach Post
by Dara Kam
TALLAHASSEE — Florida children could spend more time interacting with a computer screen than a real live teacher as lawmakers seek a vast expansion of virtual learning in public schools.
A Senate committee unanimously approved a measure Tuesday afternoon that would create virtual charter schools, let students sign up for the online courses with or without the school districts' permission and allow companies anywhere in the world provide online courses to children in kindergarten through high school.
It's all part of broadening the choices available to school children and their parents by using the technology available in the digital age, said Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, the bill (SB 1620) sponsor.
The move "can take our education system out of the farms and factories of the 20th century" and into the technology-based world in which students now live, Flores said.
The shift away from bricks-and-mortar schoolrooms to virtual learning environments is chief among Gov. Rick Scott's proposed education reforms, although Flores said she had not spoken with the governor about her proposal.
But school district officials have concerns about the bill because the virtual learning providers may not have to hire teachers with the same qualifications as public schools and do not have to teach the same curricula or to the same standards.
"Our concern is that they are required to meet the same instructor and curriculum standards as Florida schools and existing Florida virtual schools," said Palm Beach County School District lobbyist Vern Pickup-Crawford of the bill. "I'm not sure it does or not."
That could be problematic for students because they would still have to pass the same end-of-course exams as those in regular public schools.
According to a staff analysis of the bill, it's also unknown how much the virtual school expansion will cost taxpayers.
Last year, just one percent of the state's 2.6 million public school children were enrolled in virtual classes. No one knows how many more would sign up under the new system.
Under the current system, virtual education in Florida is provided by the public Florida Virtual School, which offers middle and high school classes, and six private vendors that districts can contract with. Districts also can create their own virtual programs. Students must go through the district to sign up for the classes.
The proposal would require the Florida Virtual School to offer full-time classes from K-12 and allow students to sign up directly with vendors approved by the state education department.
The committee also debated two other controversial education measures but did not vote them.
One would cap the salaries of school board members at $100 per meeting with an annual maximum of $2,400. Palm Beach County School Board members are paid $36,822 a year, the same salary and benefits as beginning teachers. The school board meets at least once each week in either a workshop or meeting 52 weeks out of the year.
Taxpayers could save $10 million annually under the proposal, money that could go back to the schools, said Senate K-12 Education Committee Chairman Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville.
"We always want to be No. 1 in America and we are No. 1 in America. In school board salaries," Wise said, adding that school board members are unpaid in most states.
Most school districts are not the size of Florida's, argued Florida School Boards Association executive director Wayne Blanton. He said the budgets of some districts in Florida are larger than the entire education budgets of some states.
"For the last few years, we've been working together. I believe this will divide us," Blanton said.
The committee also skipped a vote on a school prayer bill similar to previous years' efforts to get around the current constitutional prohibition on organized school prayer in public schools.
The bill (SB 700) would allow student governments to decide on the delivery of an "inspirational message," including prayer, at non compulsory middle and high school events. School teachers and personnel could not participate in the events.
"There is no participation from the school board, the principal, the coaches or anybody else," the bill's sponsor Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, said.
The bill would require that the prayers be "nonsectarian and non proselytizing." But that would make school officials responsible for ensuring the prayers meet the criteria, argued civil liberties advocates.
And that could make the bill unconstitutional because it could be interpreted as school-sponsored religious speech.
"It's going to be religiously divisive and it's going to cost the schools a lot of money in litigation," said David Barkey, an attorney for the Anti-Defamation League.
Staff writer Allison Ross contributed to this story
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/bill-would-expand-virtual-schools-in-florida-educators-1378121.html
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