April 8, 2008
New Richmond News
Wisconsin schools will stay in cyberspace, under a bill Gov. Jim Doyle signed Monday.
It nullifies a state appeals court ruling from last December that would have cut off state aid to virtual schools thus shutting them down this fall.
Families of the 3,500 virtual school students told their legislators to do something.
They and the governor agreed to a compromise which caps enrollment at 5,200. And a new audit will determine if online schools teach kids as well as brick and mortar schools.
The results of that audit are due by the end of 2009. It was one of the few bills approved last session in which both parties worked together, with only a small amount of bickering.
Rose Fernandez of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families says her group will try to remove the enrollment cap.
But she called the measure “grass-roots democracy at its finest, and a blow to powerful special interests.”
She was referring to the state’s largest teachers’ union which had tried to shut down virtual schools since their inception.
http://www.newrichmond-news.com/articles/index.cfm?id=28602§ion=Wisconsin%20News&property_id=9
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