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9486 in the collection
Arkansas Virtual Academy Is Denied Funding
Ohanian Comment: Funny thing: Nowhere in this article does the reporter mention that the Arkansas Virtual Academy is part of William Bennett's K12.com operation. You may want to take a look for yourself:
http://www.arvs.org/enroll
Stay tuned for the full k12.com expose, coming soon.
Legislators skeptical of a state Board of Education plan to subsidize home-school classes voted overwhelmingly Friday to block funding to an Internet-based charter school.
Despite about 50 vocal parents and children supporting the Arkansas Virtual Academy, the Joint Budget Committee voted 36-12 to deny the academy state dollars.
Legislators voiced several complaints about the proposal. Those included the rushed contract signing between Education Board Chairman JoNell Caldwell and the academy’s superintendent that came about 13 hours before a budget subcommittee debated the matter Thursday.
"I will emphasize that the Legislature desperately needs a state board it can trust," Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said after the budget committee meeting.
Argue said the Virtual Academy "goes way beyond" what the Legislature envisioned when it passed the 1999 charter-school law, of which he was a sponsor.
Caldwell of Little Rock, an appointee of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s, hasn’t returned telephone messages left at her home the past two days. Virtual Academy supporters describe the school as an innovative and rigorous alternative to public schools.
When the meeting ended, Randall Greenway, the school’s superintendent, flanked by Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller, gave an emotional statement to reporters.
"They’ve sent a message to big industry that technology is something that Arkansas does not want to do," Greenway said.
"They have denied every taxpaying citizen access to a high-quality education. This is absolutely outrageous they’ve done this to our families. I’m absolutely shocked. This is unbelievable. The Legislature has run roughshod over the Board of Education. I’m devastated."
Greenway acknowledged that he and Caldwell signed the contract late Wednesday to pre-empt legislative action.
"They would have done the exact same thing if they were in our position," he said. "We did what we could to save our school."
Sen. Shawn Womack, R-Mountain Home, asked if the state would be bound to fund the school because of Caldwell’s signing the contract.
Sen. Dave Bisbee, R-Rogers, budget committee co-chairman, said no. He said the Legislature controls spending.
"If funding isn’t available, then the contract is void," Bisbee told the committee.
Critics of the school said it would have diverted public funds at a time when legislators are trying to raise money for public schools to satisfy the state Supreme Court. They said they didn’t know how much it would cost because the state board allowed unlimited enrollment for the school, something Argue said no other charter school has. Charter schools, designed to provide alternatives to public schools, are generally run by nonprofit corporations and receive public dollars by contracting with the state.
The state would have paid the academy $5,400 per student, the same amount guaranteed to public schools in the new funding formula enacted earlier this week. But these extra costs would come into play with the academy: The state would "double-fund" each student leaving a public school to enter the academy for one year. That’s because the public school, funded on the basis of the previous year’s enrollment, and the charter school, funded based on current year enrollment, would each receive state funding credit for that student.
The state must come up with new money for students entering the public schools, including the academy, from private schools or from current schooling at home. That’s because those students in private or home schools aren’t counted toward state funds for their local public schools.
Argue said the Legislature — not the state board — is the proper venue to debate whether state dollars should go to home schooling.
Sen. Percy Malone, D-Arkadelphia, said he wants to study the concept over the next year to decide during the 2005 regular session.
"They can come through the front door this time," Malone said. But Greenway emphasized that the Virtual Academy’s application went through an open process at the state board, which approved their charter in October.
Each member of the state board was appointed by Huckabee, a Republican. "The Virtual Academy is one of the most promising, innovative education endeavors we’ve seen in a long time," Huckabee said later Friday in a statement. "Killing it makes no sense at all, especially at a time when we’re trying to find ways to give all students a quality education regardless of where they live. Surely the legislators will rethink their position on this."
Huckabee wouldn’t address Argue’s concerns about the trustworthiness of the state board.
Argue has been Huckabee’s staunchest ally in the push to consolidate school districts.
Malone said the school hasn’t explained to legislators why it would cost $5,400 per student to teach through the Internet.
"We have to ensure value for the taxpayer," Malone said. "Yesterday morning when it was learned the contact had been signed in the dark of night, it made even their strongest supporters say, ‘Wait a minute. We have no confidence in the people from the Department of Education to do this.’"
Greenway defended the cost by noting the school would pay for classes through the Internet, textbooks, Internet access, long-distance phone bills, shipping instructional materials and computers.
He further said the school would have other costs like "standardized testing, school outings, science fairs and National Geographic bees."
Legislators also wondered about the propriety of Greenway leaving his job as charter-school liaison for the Education Department to operate the Virtual Academy. Greenway has said there’s no conflict there. "This is about protecting the status quo," Greenway said of legislative motives.
The school began operating about a year ago after the state received a federal grant for such a program. But Greenway said the federal government has since cut the grant by 40 percent, meaning enrollment will have to drop from about 450 to 300.
He said the only way to keep the program going and expand it was to start a charter school.
He said the school is based in Little Rock. But because the statemandated limit of three charter schools in the 2 nd Congressional District has been reached, it will move to Cabot in the 1 st District if it receives funding.
Friday in Senate Bill 79, the public school funding bill for 2004-05, requires that state money go to charter schools only if they are in a traditional setting and that the Internet be used only as an educational supplement.
The vote was largely along party lines with Malone, the Senate Democratic leader, leading the opponents of funding such schools, and Senate Republican Leader Gilbert Baker of Conway leading the supporters.
Diane Humphrey of Ozark was among those attending the meeting. She said she’s on the waiting list for attendance in the Virtual Academy. She said she’s homeschooled her five children for about 13 years.
Humphrey said she would pay for the software except that it costs about $1,000. She said the state should pay for it because "you get more one-on-one than you get in a public school. You’re getting opportunities to study music and art that are not available in rural areas at all."
Lajuana Oswalt of Sherwood said her children are students of the academy. "I’m outraged," she said. "We’re already talking about a classaction lawsuit. We’ve got lists of parents names. There are hundreds of people affected by this who are not going to take it lying down."
Rockefeller, whose wife, Lisenne, is on the academy’s board, said the Internet school is needed to serve children who live in remote areas of the Delta and the Ozarks. He attended the meeting, the first budget committee he’s visited this special session.
"Are we going to prevent equity from existing for children all over this state?" Rockefeller, a Republican, said. "Do they have to be in a brick-and-mortar environment to get equity?"
— Seth Blomeley
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
2004-01-31
http://epaper.ardemgaz.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=ArDemocrat/2004/01/31&ID=Ar00105
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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