Virginia Virtual School Board; established, report. (HB1400)
Introduced By
Del. Dickie Bell (R-Staunton) with support from co-patron Del. Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg)
Progress
✓ |
Introduced |
✓ |
Passed Committee |
✓ |
Passed House |
✓ |
Passed Senate |
✗ |
Signed by Governor |
✗ |
Became Law |
Description
Virginia Virtual School established. Establishes the Board of the Virginia Virtual School (the Board) as a policy agency in the executive branch of state government for the purpose of governing the full-time virtual school programs offered to students enrolled in the Virginia Virtual School (the School). The Secretary of Education is responsible for such agency. The 14-member Board is given operational control of the School and assigned powers and duties. Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, the bill requires the School to be open to any school-age person in the Commonwealth and to provide an educational program meeting the Standards of Quality for grades kindergarten through 12, with a maximum enrollment of 5,000 students statewide. The bill requires the average state share of Standards of Quality per pupil funding for each enrolled student to be transferred to the School. Read the Bill »
Outcome
History
Date | Action |
---|---|
08/31/2016 | Committee |
08/31/2016 | Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100178D |
08/31/2016 | Referred to Committee on Education |
01/20/2017 | Assigned Education sub: Education Innovation |
01/26/2017 | Subcommittee recommends reporting (6-Y 2-N) |
01/26/2017 | Subcommittee recommends referring to Committee on Appropriations |
01/29/2017 | Impact statement from DPB (HB1400) |
01/30/2017 | Reported from Education (14-Y 7-N) (see vote tally) |
01/30/2017 | Referred to Committee on Appropriations |
01/30/2017 | Assigned App. sub: Elementary & Secondary Education |
01/31/2017 | Subcommittee recommends reporting (5-Y 1-N) |
02/01/2017 | Reported from Appropriations (12-Y 6-N) (see vote tally) |
02/03/2017 | Read first time |
02/06/2017 | Read second time and engrossed |
02/07/2017 | Read third time and passed House (57-Y 40-N) |
02/07/2017 | VOTE: PASSAGE (57-Y 40-N) (see vote tally) |
02/08/2017 | Constitutional reading dispensed |
02/08/2017 | Referred to Committee on Education and Health |
02/16/2017 | Reported from Education and Health (8-Y 7-N) (see vote tally) |
02/16/2017 | Rereferred to Finance |
02/16/2017 | Reported from Finance (7-Y 4-N) (see vote tally) |
02/20/2017 | Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/21/2017 | Read third time |
02/21/2017 | Passed Senate (22-Y 18-N) (see vote tally) |
02/24/2017 | Enrolled |
02/24/2017 | Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1400ER) |
02/24/2017 | Signed by Speaker |
02/24/2017 | Signed by President |
02/28/2017 | Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/28/17 |
02/28/2017 | G Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017 |
03/08/2017 | Impact statement from DPB (HB1400ER) |
03/13/2017 | G Vetoed by Governor |
04/05/2017 | Placed on Calendar |
04/05/2017 | House sustained Governor's veto (58-Y 42-N) |
04/05/2017 | VOTE: OVERRIDE GOVERNOR'S VETO (58-Y 42-N) (see vote tally) |
04/05/2017 | (67 affirmative votes required to override) |
Comments
Hello,
I am a former high school history teacher and I have been an education professor preparing history teachers for over 9 years.
After careful consideration, I must conclude that this bill is a terrible idea. The research evidence on virtual schools is dismal, particularly in the earlier grades. There are some limited cases where virtual schools might be of some use, particularly for home-bound students in rural areas. This bill would provide for a system that goes way beyond that. Schools are where young people learn a variety of social, emotional, and cognitive skills. On all these counts, particularly the first two, virtual schools are woefully inadequate. "On-line kindergarten" sounds like something from a SNL skit, not something that our state legislators should take seriously. State agencies should not give a seal of approval to such entities.
The argument for such schools has been that they will provide cost savings, but in this bill, the full amount of state funding will go to each student enrolled. That is absurd. There is no physical plant to maintain, there are fewer services such as counseling, physical education, meals, and fewer teachers in virtual schools, so why are there no cost savings here?
People pay taxes to support their communities and the institutions that sustain them. This bill would authorize parasitic non- and for-profit entities to siphon tax dollars away from those institutions with no benefit to anyone but themselves. This is kleptocracy and the people of Virginia will not stand for it.
Another layer of bureaucracy and a way to drain state funds from our brick and mortar public schools. I agree with Gabriel A. Reich's full comment above. "This bill would authorize parasitic non- and for-profit entities to siphon tax dollars away from those institutions with no benefit to anyone but themselves. This is kleptocracy and the people of Virginia will not stand for it." It is wrong to use children for profit and to knowingly and deliberately give them a subpar education. Shame.
This seems like a way to transfer local education funds from public education to for profit educational companies. The transfer of funds is suspect in that one 'virtue' of a virtual school is, one might assume, significantly lower costs. Yet there would be no cost savings transferred to the state in this case - just increased profits for predatory education companies.
Please oppose it!
Not only is there the issue of funding (the MAJOR concern, well addressed by previous commenters), but this would also take control of any virtual school programs already in existence away from locally elected school boards.