Memo on SB2
To: Assembly Republicans
Re: SB2
Fr: Rose Fernandez, WCVSF
Dt: April 29, 2011
Representatives,
I was deeply disappointed to see the Assembly Education Committee weaken the strong, pro-parent open enrollment language contained in both Senator Olsen's Senate Bill 2 and Governor Walker's Budget Bill. I am writing today on behalf of our entire coalition to urge you to restore the strong open enrollment language passed by the State Senate in February on a bipartisan basis. I do not want to tell the thousands of families in our coalition that after gaining the support of the Governor and a bipartisan agreement in the Senate, that it was Assembly Republicans who were the obstacles to this much needed reform.
The overwhelming majority of open enrollments are not to virtual schools, but to traditional public schools in neighboring districts. As our school boards and superintendents have responded to public demand for innovative school options, open enrollment has grown. Even so, less than four percent of all K-12 school children are open enrolled. Our state Department of Public Instruction testified in support of this bill citing pride in their open enrollment program and hope for its expansion.
In 2008, as the founding president of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families, I came here to the Capitol along with over 1200 moms and dads and kids and teachers to ask for votes to save our statewide online public schools. State education statute that hadn't anticipated digital communication was brought up-to-date as a result of our bipartisan victory. Now, just 3 short years later, online instruction is a respected, validated instructional model that many districts in the state embrace as a value for their students, educators, and budgets.
I write to you today to ask that you make open enrollment what it was intended to be. Not a privilege for a select few. Not a narrow window that is closed most of the time. But an open door that welcomes each Wisconsin child into our public schools. Children must not be held prisoner by their street address. I ask you to open that door and make open enrollment work for the boys and girls of Wisconsin. I ask you to put those youngsters ahead, not in empty rhetoric, but in true fact, ahead of the wishes of those who serve the system.
Parents need to be able to move a child out of a school that is not meeting their child's needs as soon as possible. Parents know that days count. Weeks can hurt. Months can stifle. Time is of the essence when your child is not learning or is at risk in a classroom. Every day lost has a cost. It is not good enough to have a few months in the winter to file a form asking to send your child to the right school the next September.
Public schools should be given the option of accepting a newly open enrolled student for admission immediately, if able, any time. The need to transfer a child is a rare occurrence during the school year and one that is taken only as the last resort. No family wants to uproot a child, but sometimes it is necessary. Wisconsin's extraordinarily restrictive stance denies our children educational freedom found in many other states. Here in Wisconsin we force parents to homeschool if they can't afford private school tuition when their child's public school fails. This bill will end that. It will allow a new public school to welcome a child anytime during the school year just as they routinely do now for families who move into their boundaries.
This may challenge some administrators. Excuses as to why it won't be possible may be offered. If we are to truly put the needs of students and learning above those of the adults in the schools, we simply must cause some inconvenience. Our school district superintendents, some of our most highly qualified and compensated education professionals, can certainly rise to that challenge. As public servants they are obliged to.
Please stand up to those who are frightened by open enrollment and so wish for fences around neighborhood schools to hold children and dollars in, with little concern for the kids involved. You've heard about "lost" dollars from open enrollment. Children are not dollars on a ledger. Not to their families. Public education in Wisconsin must be smarter than that. Wisconsin must not build fences. The boys and girls growing up here need you to open open enrollment. Make it a welcoming door. Make it what Wisconsin families need it to be. And please, please, do it now.
Please restore the strong open enrollment language passed with bipartisan support in the State Senate in February. Do not give ground on this vital reform. Families need educational freedom and we are counting on your support. Governor Walker is with us. The Senate is with us. Are you?