Online Learning “Student Poaching”
My ASCD SmartBrief newsletter from a couple of days ago had a link to an article from the online Rocky Mountain News about the controversy brewing over the Vilas School district and their online classes. Why is there a controversy? The district only has 100 students, but has enrolled almost 2,000 students in online courses from other districts across the state. Their level of funding has quadrupled in the last twelve months as the state support for the students follows them from their own home district to the online classes.
Needless to say, the home districts aren’t really pleased. Just to muddy the waters, most of the students are enrolled through a separate enitity that runs the online charter school under a contract with the Vilas district. To some degree, the district is a front for the Hope Online Learning Academy Co-op, which contracts with local non-profit groups around the state to run its 40 centers where students can take the online classes and receive tutoring. Is this a healthy public-private partnership, or someone taking advantage of the system to make money from the public schools? It’s certainly not clear from the amount of info in the article, but there is also no clear agreement among the folks in Colorado.
My favorite quote is
“What really shocked me was that online students could drive costs” instead of saving money, said Rep. Tom Plant, D-Nederland, chairman of the Joint Budget Committee.
One of the biggest problems we have with online learning is the very mistaken belief that it will somehow be less expensive. Hopefully we can get this idea stamped out.
My second-favorite quote is
“They don’t like free enterprise. They don’t like competition,” Sen. John Evans, R-Parker, a member of the education committee, said of those critical of online programs.
I hope we can get away from the idea that free enterprise and competition are silver bullets that will fix anything, too.
Lots to think about here!