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End State's 'Virtual' Failure

Florida's "virtual school" pilot program has crashed, and the Legislature should not renew it. Tweaks won't fix the problems, which have included companies trading on political influence, lobbyists who misrepresented potential savings and an education commissioner who ignored the law.

Despite all those failings, Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, will seek an extension of the program, which this year paid $4.8 million in state money to two private companies. One, Virginia-based Florida Virtual Academy, is linked to GOP darling William Bennett, education secretary under President Reagan. The other is Maryland-based Connections Academy.

Both received an illegal favor from Education Commissioner Jim Horne, whose department allowed them to enroll kindergartners and first-graders who never had been enrolled in public school. The law that established the program had forbidden such students from getting the $4,800 "virtual vouchers." Doing so encourages home-schoolers, who are not entitled to state money, to tap tax money that should go for public education. Instead of saving the state up to $700,000, as lobbyists promised senators, the pilot program is costing taxpayers about $565,000.

Mr. Horne says he's using federal money for the home-school students rather than money set aside for the pilot. Regardless of the source, juggling accounts doesn't change the fact the money is being misspent. The virtual school pilot program has the earmarks of being as ill-conceived and ill-administered as the corporate voucher program, which is riddled with financial and other problems uncovered by The Post. At least the "virtual" test program is more limited in scope.

But Rep. Pickens wants to make the problem bigger. He says virtual schools have proved their value, even though they've operated for only a few months. In addition, he wants an increase in the amount paid for each student, even as public schools face financial crisis.

Virtual education probably has a place in public education. Like so many of Gov. Bush's "innovations," however, this one was rushed through based on ideology hostile to public education. That attitude hardly deserves an extension.





— Editorial
End state's 'virtual' failure
Palm Beach Post
2003-12-06
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/auto/epaper/editions/saturday/opinion_f31d85e2b14d00881050.html

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