Governor Crist: Don't Sign That Bill

Gary Fineout, in the Miami Herald, writes about the virtual education bill that is now on Florida Governor Charlie Crist's desk. Florida is not only the fourth largest state, but also a trendsetter for virtual education. Unfortunately for both the state and virtual education in general, this bill takes the state in the wrong direction. Ironically, it will do the exact opposite of what its sponsors purport:

State Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican and one of the backers of the legislation, said the state needed to spur competition to boost the availability of online courses. "I've seen students who desperately need online courses and have been unable to access them," said Gaetz, a former school superintendent. "Now school districts can pick and choose and negotiate for price and quality."

Florida already has the largest state-run supplemental virtual school (Florida Virtual School) with the widest array of course offerings in the country. The state also has a strong student choice provision that guarantees students access to these courses. So Senator Gaetz is referring to students that want a full-time virtual education, primarily at the K-8 level. The state authorizes these full-time programs and can already pick and choose and negotiate for price and quality. And, the main barrier to expanding those programs is a legislative cap on funding. So, this bill, which mandates that each of Florida's 67 school districts contract with a provider or develop its own program to provide a full-time K-8 virtual schooling program, is not really about those things. What it does is move Florida from a well-run, successful, state-authorized program to a system that forces each district to manage and authorize its own program.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, this change will actually reduce competition and options for students. Under the current statewide model, families in Florida have at least two options. But, this bill would remove the option from families and give districts, most of which have no experience or mechanisms to oversee virtual education, the option instead.

It's highly unlikely that districts will provide multiple options. It's almost certain that they will contract with either one of the current providers or start their own program--with much less oversight. Even more troubling, the districts, with little administrative capacity to manage these programs, will have incentives to choose the lowest cost providers so they can capture part of the per student funding provided by the state.

Expanding options for students is a worthy goal. The governor should send this bill back to the legislature and ask legislators to develop a bill that spurs robust competition among multiple providers at the state level. And, to re-assert Florida's role as an innovator in virtual education, the state should offer incentives for providers to successfully serve low-income and other at-risk students--students that are many times not well-represented in or well-served by virtual education programs. Instead of mandating just full time programs, a new bill would also provide incentives for districts to work closely with both the Florida Virtual School and private providers to experiment with hybrid learning programs--allowing students to benefit from a blend of the best of both traditional and online learning. With this new bill, students across the state would have access to more than just what their district chooses. All Florida families, whether in Hialeah or Niceville or Tampa, would have access to many high quality options--options that offer a real mix of online and hybrid models to fit a wide variety of student needs.