After explosive growth in online learning options in Ohio and nationally, the state could soon be poised to take a huge step backward. Governor Strickland's proposed budget would cut funding substantially to Ohio's charter schools, including cybercharters. His proposal would burden existing cybercharters with all manner of punishing new requirements and limitations. They would include outlawing the for-profit firms that appear to be running the best of those schools; thus battle lines are being drawn about cyber-education policy in Ohio.
Whether????called e-learning, virtual schooling or cyberschooling, online learning offers huge potential. Lawmakers have caught on. At the same time the governor wants to all but abolish some of the state's most successful online-learning efforts, Ohio legislators just this week introduced House Bill 4 to create the first state-led online-learning initiative to be piloted in high schools. It would offer Advanced Placement courses via teleconferencing equipment to every Ohio high school, providing access to classes that students wouldn't otherwise have because those classes are too costly. It also would make experts in advanced science, math, foreign languages, history and other specialized subjects accessible to remote schools or, again, schools otherwise unable to afford the services of an expert teacher.
Of course, cybercharters already offer the same potential as that proposed by the new legislation--yet they are currently on the chopping block simply because they are charters.
The issue at hand shouldn't be whether education is delivered by a for-profit or non-profit organization, or a charter or non-charter school. What we as taxpayers and citizens vitally concerned with the future of our state should ask is whether a school is successfully educating kids.
Educational innovations like cybercharters shouldn't be trounced, but should be given the chance to continue to provide educational innovations. Ohio policymakers need to establish operating standards to ensure that only cybercharters with a high probability of successfully educating students remain operating, just like other online-learning programs. It would be a shame to see Ohio backslide by enacting blanket restrictions for online educational opportunities while other states successfully implement these programs.