Bell: Responsible and fair virtual school law is best

WEAC President Mary Bell tells nearly 400 members that responsible, fair legislation for virtual charter schools will benefit all children and taxpayers. Bell made her comments during the 2008 Winter Conference in Appleton.

Responsible, fair legislation for virtual charter schools will serve the children and taxpayers of Wisconsin, WEAC President Mary Bell told nearly 400 WEAC members at the 2008 Winter Conference February 22-24 in Appleton.

“WEAC filed a lawsuit against one virtual charter school because we thought it was operating illegally. A state Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that we were right,” Bell said. “We asked from the start for the Legislature to make a law that allows these schools to operate without interrupting the education of the students enrolled in them.”

“We also thought it was important, since public dollars — taxpayers — are funding the schools, some assurances be made that they are providing students with a quality education, and spending the public money they receive responsibly,” Bell told the educators. “We call that accountability.”

“A state audit of the schools will better assure accountability, and a flexible cap on enrollment will give the audit a chance to work before it is too late to address any problems it might uncover. We support all of these ideas, and they are all part of Senate Bill 396.”

"Your organization believes in progress and we will stand for quality schools," Bell said.

“That is the story. That’s the real story,” Bell said.

Bell urged members to voice support for Senate Bill 396 by contacting legislators directly or through Cyberlobby.

“The impact of uncapped enrollment for virtual schools may not be clear… but I know that our traditional schools are under such tremendous funding distress that to say we can just ignore the potential impact is irresponsible,” Bell said. “As much as the children in the virtual public schools need a great school, so do the 875,000 students in Wisconsin’s great traditional public schools, and nobody has stepped up to the funding plate there.”

Issue links to WEAC’s priorities

Bell told the crowd that virtual charter school legislation is important because it gets at the heart of WEAC’s Strategic Priorities. They are:

• School Funding Reform.
• Work to Close Achievement Gaps.
• Health Care Reform.
• Professional Development and Licensure Support.

“We have identified priorities that, we believe, encompass all of the possibilities that our work can address effectively. The priorities do not compete with each other; they are common goals, and failure or neglect in one priority will limit our potential for success on the others,” Bell said.

School funding reform

The debate over virtual charter schools is taking place during a full-blown school funding crisis, and WEAC Executive Director Dan Burkhalter presented an overview of the measures the organization is involved in to promote this critical reform.

Dan Burkhalter WEAC Executive Director

Burkhalter said the revenue controls enacted in 1993 have had a compounding, negative effect on schools.

“As the years have passed by, the stresses on the system have only made it worse,” he said.

WEAC has engaged in a multi-faceted strategy to work toward school funding reform, including changing the way community and state leaders think about school funding, achieving bipartisan support for a solution and creating a unified voice for change.

WEAC's coalition partners part play an important part of the advocacy efforts, Burkhalter said.

“There is no quick fix. If there were, someone would have fixed it a long time ago,” Burkhalter said. “But the time to fix it is now.”

"We are WEAC," he said. "WEAC is all of us coming together collectively."

Posted February 25, 2008