Re: Wolf in sheep's clothing

[Carol Holst <kceh@AIRMAIL.NET>]

Here's the Houston Chronicle article.
==============
Houston Chronicle
Taxpayers may finance PCs for home-schoolers
Sept. 23, 2001

TEA interpretation of law angers lawmakers

By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN -- Some home-schooled students in Houston soon may be receiving
thousands of dollars of computer equipment paid for by taxpayers.

The unusual arrangement is happening because of the Texas Education
Agency's
interpretation of a law allowing the state to waive attendance
requirements
for state funding. The attendance waiver is part of a law establishing a
two-year pilot study of virtual schools.

But the lawmakers who wrote the bill have complained about TEA's
decision to
include in the pilot a school that will serve students who are taught at
home by their parents. Home schools traditionally have been considered
private schools and have received no state funding.

The money -- potentially $2.5 million -- would flow to a company founded
in 1999 by William J. Bennett, former U.S. education secretary and a
leading
proponent of school choice.

Bennett's business, K12 Education Co., would receive the tax dollars as
a
subcontractor to Houston Gateway Academy, a charter school founded by
state
Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock. The home school component of Gateway
Academy, called Texas Virtual Charter School, will serve students in
kindergarten, first and second grades.

Nancy Trunk, head of TVCS, said the school is approved to serve 500
students and has so far enrolled about 300 in central and southeast
Texas,
including Houston and Austin.

The virtual charter school could receive $5,000 for each home-schooled
student.

"This sounds like a scheme to make Texas taxpayers pay for vouchers to
fund
home schools," said Carolyn Boyle, coordinator of the Coalition for
Public
Schools, a group of 36 organizations that oppose private school
vouchers.
"This is a backdoor way to fund home schools and would be a new expense
for
Texas taxpayers."

An estimated 75,000 children are home-schooled in Texas, according to a
Home
Education Week proclamation issued earlier this year by Gov. Rick Perry.
Critics of TEA's decision to allow the Gateway Academy to participate in
the
pilot project include the senator and representative who wrote the bill
setting up the pilot study of online learning. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, the
author of Senate Bill 975, said in a Sept. 5 letter to Education
Commissioner Jim Nelson that legislative intent was to exclude charter
schools from these distance learning projects.

"Under its current interpretation, TEA is violating the legislative
intent
of SB 975 and, in doing so, is thwarting the will of the 180 legislators
who
unanimously passed this bill," wrote Shapleigh, D-El Paso.

In a Sept. 11 letter, Nelson said he disagreed with Shapleigh's
interpretation of the legislation.

"If we are to truly evaluate the capabilities, impact and financial
accountability of virtual programs then we must include a wide variety
of
programming methods," Nelson wrote.

Rep. Scott Hochberg, the House sponsor of the bill, said the pilot
project
was designed to allow school districts to collect money based on average
daily attendance for students who were taking online classes outside of
a
regular classroom setting.

Examples cited during legislative debate included secondary students who
needed a specific advanced course or students who couldn't regularly
attend classes because of a disability or special circumstances such as
having
families who traveled as migrant workers. "This was not designed as a
subsidy for anybody's commercial project, I can assure you of that,"
said
Hochberg, D-Houston.

Eric Hartman, legislative director for the Texas Federation of Teachers,
said that he thinks TEA is "on very shaky legal ground" in approving the
project.

"This is a disguised subsidy to home-schoolers. If the Legislature
confronted this issue head on, it couldn't pass," Hartman said. Gregg
Vanourek, vice president of K12's charter school division, said the
virtual charter school brings private school students into the public
education system.

"These children are no longer home-schoolers. They become public charter
school students," Vanourek said.

Although the students will continue to be taught by parents at home,
they
will face requirements about curriculum and will be tested to make sure
they are learning the standards established by TEA, Vanourek said.
Teachers
hired by K12 will work with parents and monitor the students' progress.

At an open house in Austin last month, K12 representatives told families
they would receive at no charge on loan a computer, monitor and printer
as
well as software programs, written materials and items such as
chalkboards,
art kits, tambourines and videos.

One of the speakers was Melinda Wheatley, who was introduced as a board
member of Gateway Academy and as K12's vice president for Texas.
Wheatley
told the audience that some people "in the upper echelons of Texas
politics"
helped to get the home-school program approved.

Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the TEA, said the agency had
not been contacted about the pilot program by Perry, a supporter of
school
choice. She said the commissioner also had not talked to Bennett or U.S.
Education Secretary Rod Paige, a former member of K12's board of
directors.

Wheatley referred questions to K12, which is based in McLean, Va.

She has since resigned as president of Gateway's board of trustees
because
her positions with both the school and K12 presented a conflict of
interest,
Krusee said.
Krusee said that the Gateway board may set up a separate board or
subcommittee to deal with the virtual charter school.

Krusee said public education advocates should be supporting the program
because it will make sure that home-schoolers meet education standards.

Ratcliffe said Gateway is the only program involved in the pilot that
will
serve students in the earliest grades. Ten school districts, including
HISD, also are expected to participate in the virtual learning project.

Gaye Lang, project manager of HISD virtual schools, said the program
will
involve students in middle and high school. She said some students may
access the online programs through school computers while others may
work at
home after school.

Lang said HISD is developing its own curriculum. She said she is not
expecting any extra money from the state since the students already are
enrolled in area schools.

Ratcliffe said Gateway will not be paid by TEA until it receives a
waiver
from the daily attendance requirements. Gateway's charter allows it to
serve
1,170 students. It has about 700 enrolled in its regular charter school
in
southeast Houston.

The state has rated Gateway as low-performing based on student
assessment
test scores. Krusee also founded affiliated charter schools in San
Antonio,
Dallas and Midland. He said he is not paid for his work with the charter
schools.

Texas is the third state where K12 would be running virtual charter
schools.
Its efforts in Colorado and Pennsylvania also have been controversial.

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