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Senate Panel Approves Virtual School Overhaul
April 6, 2011
A wide-ranging bill that revamps Florida’s virtual education programs was unanimously approved by a Senate education committee on Tuesday.
The bill removes a mandate that school districts offer virtual instruction programs and allows them to contract with other districts or virtual school providers approved by the Department of Education.
Students in public and private schools as well as home-schooled children could enroll, a change from current law which only permits public school students to enroll. The funding formula used to pay districts for virtual students is also revamped so that it is based primarily on “seat time” versus course completion.
Students beginning in school year 2011-12 would be required to take at least one online course in order to meet high school graduation requirements.
“This bill creates equity and clarity in our current system,” said Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami. “We need to give access to all Florida students to take as many online classes as wanted.”
But Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, said after the meeting he had concerns about shifting control of virtual schools programming away from school districts.
“We’ve got to make sure the school districts themselves retain control over any program that goes on in their district…you can’t just farm that out,” Montford said. There is no identical measure in the House.
Comments
4 Responses to “Senate Panel Approves Virtual School Overhaul”
It is the responsibility of the parents and the teacher to motivate the child to excel in school, either through rewards, tutor consistancy and discipline.
. If the child is not advancing in school, by the middle of the year, through the report card you would know just how he is doing, then it is time to make changes in his life.
Put him in another school, private or Christian, or homeschool.
The final responsibility is on the parent, not the teacher. The parents are the ones who have invested the most time, love and discipline.
The parents know more about their child than any teacher who only has them for one or two years.
No one should allow a child to go through school bored, uninterested or lazy. They will grow up depending on the government to take care of them.
thanks
And also reduce the need to keep in school those who are just filling a seat while their minds are elsewhere.
Let ‘em roam until they’re ready then fill their minds with the wonders of the world–or at the very least the skills they need to earn a living.
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I agree, David. It serves no purpose to have the there taking up teachers’ time with discipline problems, etc that could be put to so much better use teaching kids who DO want to learn. When they are ready, we need to have something better available for them than PJC night school. There should be a test to see what they know in order to start them at the right level and then let them do it online I mean, hey, ALL teens love the internet, right? It would be a lot easier for them to do it if they didn’t have to sit in a class for hours or be in a room with kids who are way younger than they are.
(And my sympathies on the passing of your aunt.)
REGARDING:
“The funding formula used to pay districts for virtual students is also revamped so that it is based primarily on “seat time” versus course completion.”
I wonder exactly what this means.
– Seat time could be time logged on. Just being logged on without doing anything doesn’t mean anything, though.
–Doing the work while logged off doesn’t mean it wasn’t done, either.
–Not paying teachers for trying to teach students who didn’t complete the course despite the best efforts of their virtual/real teacher doesn’t make sense as it was, I guess.
Still, it seems hopeful. It should provide more educational opportunities for more people.
Now if they can just include the ones who dropped out because they didn’t understand the value of an education but would like back in after they do come to understand, that would be a very good thing. It would also reduce the need to keep in school those who are just filling a seat while their minds are elsewhere.
Let ‘em roam until they’re ready then fill their minds with the wonders of the world–or at the very least the skills they need to earn a living.
David for meeting people’s needs
and determining what they are