Parents, Teachers and Students Push for Virtual School Bill

As mentioned yesterday:

Citizen Coalition Begins Statewide Radio Ad Campaign
Virtual School Supporters Want Doyle to Sign AB1060

[Madison, Wisc…] The Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families has launched a statewide advertising campaign to motivate citizens to contact Governor Doyle. The Coalition is encouraging Governor Doyle to sign Assembly Bill 1060, legislation which benefits public virtual education.

“We’re optimistic the Governor will sign the bill, but we’re not taking anything for granted,” said Rose Fernandez, President of the Coalition. “We hope the ad campaign will motivate supporters of public virtual schooling to call the Governor and let their voices be heard.”

Last year, thanks in part to the advocacy efforts of the Coalition, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster drafted a group of expert advisors to examine virtual schools and online learning in the public PK-12 schools of Wisconsin. While the advisory committee has not released a report, AB1060 mirrors many of the recommendations made by the group.

The sixty second radio commercial will run this week and next on stations in Green Bay, La Crosse, Milwaukee and Wausau. In the ad, a student who attends a public virtual school in Wisconsin says:

“Thanks to Wisconsin law, my school and my teacher, I’m already thinking about college and my future career. It’s important that Wisconsin families continue to have this option. Please call Governor Doyle and tell him to sign Assembly Bill 1060. Every kid deserves a great school, and that includes me and the thousands of others who go to high quality on line public schools in Wisconsin.”

The Coalition consists of hundreds of parents, students, teachers and supporters concerned about the educational opportunities available to Wisconsin families. It was formed in the wake of legal threats to virtual education in Wisconsin.

“These public schools do not require legislation in order to continue to operate,” said Fernandez. “However, we feel it is appropriate for the state to continue to chart the course virtual schools can follow so that they will always be an educational option for Wisconsin families.”

Wisconsin has nearly a dozen virtual schools, including: Appleton eSchool, Northeast Wisconsin Online Charter School, Grantsburg Virtual School, iQ Academies, Kiel eSchool, Monroe Virtual School, Wisconsin Connections Academy, Wisconsin Virtual Academy (WIVA), and the Wisconsin Virtual School. Thousands of students from all over the state attend these schools and many other public schools that use on-line instruction.

Two years ago, after failing to win a lawsuit against the state’s first virtual public school, the Wisconsin Education Association Council filed a second complaint in Ozaukee County Circuit Court against another virtual public school (the Wisconsin Virtual Academy), the Northern Ozaukee School District, and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in an effort to shut down the school. DPI, although it originally had approved the charter school, later sided with the union.

A decision in the case is expected later this year. AB1060, drafted in full compliance with Wisconsin statutory law and the No Child Left Behind Act, does not address the merits of the court case, but rather reaffirms the Legislature’s intent to provide the proper legislative and regulatory guidelines for virtual schools.

Listen to the ad.