Okay, one more post on this whole virtual school fiasco, and we'll move onto because my summer has officially begun now that Governor Ted has it on his desk.
How could whole thing been averted? I think there is one answer to it. You're also hearing rumblings about this very issue with the whole Cap and Trade controversy.
Make it mandatory that any state or federal legislator be required to read the entire bill they are about to vote on from start to finish. Of course, that would have made the whole hasty Cap and Trade vote recently done take another week since the bill itself is 1,000+ pages.
Why do I think this would have helped our "cause" in this whole virtual school thing? Simple answer--legislators would not have taken Laurie Wimmer's word for it that this bill doesn't shut down schools. They would have seen it. It also wouldn't have been the scandalous revelation when it was shown that this bill's intention was to shut down virtual schools. She could easily have retorted to the accusations, "But you were required to read this, so why is this a surprise?" It would have given her the out she needed to save face and possibly her job.
We, as parents and virtual school administrators, sat in hearings and meetings saying until we were blue in the face saying this would have shut down schools mainly by the dwindling effect of the harsh enrollment cap neatly ensconced in this bill and it's amendments. No democrat, minus about 4 total, believed us. Since we have a super majority in our capital, that didn't cut it at all.
But had every single legislator read the bill, I do believe many many more would have seen the verbiage and we would not have hit the drastic and dramatic state we hit at the end of this bill.
It also may have cost Laurie Wimmer her credibility, and possibly even her job. I am guessing since we all saw the new power suited up woman being groomed at the capital a few days ago for Laurie's job, Laurie's job description has at the very least, changed. I feel bad for her because this isn't a great economy to be looking for work in the education field. But honestly, shame on her for sneaking in legislation on a bill based on her knowledge that legislators don't read bills.
I think it's a good idea to have them read each one. Thoughts?
1 comment:
Absolutely! How can they possibly know what they are voting on and its consequences??? If you get a chance, I think it would interesting to as Jeff Kropf (who is leading ORCA's board and he's a former state representative that I interned with). Too many assumptions get made and we all know what assuming does, huh??
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