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Mr. Virtue's Profit Motive

Bill Bennett wants states to gamble on virtual schools

For an anti-vice visionary, it's odd that William Bennett would think he needed slot machines to supplement his income.

The author of The Book of Virtues admits to gambling away a wad. "Not the milk money" is how he describes it. Into the millions of dollars, is how Washington Monthly describes it. That's a shame, and unnecessary.

The fact is, to get wealthy, all the unassailable Mr. Bennett needed to do was stick his well-elevated snout into the government trough.

It's a very common practice these days in case you haven't noticed, for people who rail against government to be quick in line to collect from it.

That's Bill Bennett, former education secretary, the man who patented virtue, he of the terminally furrowed brow. How to make a buck? Through "virtual schools."

This week Texas lawmakers were debating the idea, something that ought to be completely out of the question considering the financial crisis they face.

Here they are cutting back on benefits to teachers, putting school districts in a pinch, and veritably sending out state troopers to find any loose change under any sofa cushion. Yet these same lawmakers are debating — ready for this? — state-funded homeschooling.

Well, there must be a lot of money to throw around after all. Budget crisis: over!

It must be, because a bill approved by the state Senate would award homeschoolers $4,700 apiece for a computer, printer and instructional materials. The bill to create "virtual charter schools" was defeated in the House. But it was revived through a Senate bill authored by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano.

----Money to be made----

Its price tag would range from $17 million to $75 million over the next biennium depending on whether the state were to cap enrollment at 2,000 and limit administration to universities, or if it opened it to more comers. If it does, William Bennett wants in.

There are two reasons why conservatives like privatization. First, they don't like government. Second, they know there's money to be made from government. In the case of virtual charter schools, Bennett's K12 Inc. runs "virtual academies," at-home charter schools connected by computers.

In April, Bennett testified before a state Senate committee in favor of virtual charters. K12 Inc. may sound like a long-shot to pay off. But consider that it has virtual schools, both public and private, in nine states. Last month IPO.com reported that Bennett's corporation had managed to scrape up $20 million in venture capital.

Gold. Gold in those government halls. Who needs gambling?

Distance-learning and virtual classrooms have a very valid function in today's world. Some states have used so-called virtual classes for homebound students.

But when it comes to funding homeschooling during a budget crunch, taxpayers should bow their backs. Virtual charters fit too well with the consumerist notion of education that all one need do is deliver information to the consumer. Bingo. You've got education. Standardize it, test everyone and you've got everyone educated. Wrong.

Education is far more than sending information down the transom. You can be trained on a computer to do many tasks. Education is not the same as training.

Bennett, from his once-unassailable perch high atop white cliffs of rectitude, is just the type to convince parents or bureaucracies that he has the answer to education, and it doesn't require wicked and bloated public schools.

Families are more than welcome to wager their own money on virtual schools. Taxpayers should not spin the wheel for them.


— John Young
Mr. Virtue's Profit Motive
Waco Tribune-Herald
May 22, 2003
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2003/05/22/1053579378.03033.9228.0355.html

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