That School Thing That Never Goes Away.....

You remember that virtual school bill? That one that consumed my entire summer?

Here is an update. One of the things legislated in that was a task force that needed to meet this fall to decide how online virtual schools would be governed in this state to be recommended to the next legislative session this February.

Yesterday was the third of four (probably going to turn into five) meetings of this task force. I missed the second. I attended the first and yesterday's.

Let me give you a summary of the first, and what very cool things happened yesterday.

I don't know who arranged it, but the first session was a gal (and this is how bad the memory goes....sorry for the lack of detail....Mark S. if you're reading this feel free to comment adding details) from Washington DC who knows her stuff with virtual schooling worldwide. She has a resume a mile long that includes being an aid to top people in our government regarding education.

Loved her! She took control of the room like a seasoned teacher and took us on a "tour" of the trends happening internationally regarding online/virtual schooling. Let me give you a summary of that tour:

* Mexico. Right now, all K-12 educators in Mexico are trained in how to deliver K-12 education online. Mexico is working at implementing in the next few years the ability to deliver all of their education online, especially to rural communities.

*India. India realized recently that if they wanted to educate all people in their country, they would need to build 200,000 schools. Not possible. So they have trained all educators in K-12 education to teach online. They are waiting WiMAX technology to kick in to deliver that education in the next 5-10 years. All they need is the technology.

* Southeast Asian regions. Currently are using online learning to combat SARS outbreaks. When a community has an outbreak, the community goes into quarantine. Education still takes place online. There is seamless continuity in education, and online learning allows that to happen.

* China. China is just waiting for WiMAX technology as well. In an effort to educate their entire country in K-12 education, specifically rural communities, China has also trained K-12 educators in how to deliver online education. They recognize this as an efficient and cost effective way to educate their large population that normally would have not received an education.

I could go on and on. Turkey, the Middle East, South America, Africa, etc.

What did I love about sitting there as she did this? Watching the members of the task force (who were also hand picked by those who want to be rid of online education in our state) and their faces. Certainly makes some of the objections to this form of education seem awfully petty now doesn't it? It brought them down several notches at that point, and I think it started this whole task force off on a great foot.

I missed the second task force. They essentially broke into work groups and worked through several points that would be taken to the legislative session in February.

The meeting yesterday recapped those work groups and was great for bringing me right up to speed.

What did I see yesterday? All those players I ranted about in my blog last summer who I was targeting and angry with. Senator Richard Devlin, Representative Sara Gelser, my illustrious House Representative Michael Dembrow. Senator Devlin and Representative Gelser made 180's yesterday. Michael Dembrow still asked cloddish and petty questions....some things never change. Let me give you Devlin's turn about.

Senator Richard Devlin. Remember his town hall meeting I attended in August? Click here. You know, the one where we would have been completely shut out had not the other representative there called on us? You know, Devlin who was the main sponsor of SB 767? The bill that had secret language to shut down the schools that were revealed in a scandal in the end? You know, Devlin. The main sponsor of the bill who is also the Senate Majority Leader who said at his town hall, "Nothing hits the Senate floor unless I let it." Yep, him. You know, the guy who sponsored this bill, yet never agreed to meet with any of us, and continually sent us copy/pasted pat answers about this whole thing. Remember him, good!

Bottom line, he sponsored this bill, pushed it through, and shut parents out of the discussion including not allowing a spot on this task force for a parent. We parents made a stink about that too. Instead he and the unions assembled this task force. We didn't feel represented or "safe" at all as this began.

He took testimony from representatives from the teacher's unions yesterday, the same people who finance his campaign and all his democrat cronies. He shut them down on more than one occasion yesterday, and it was amazing to see.

Union rep: Well, these vendors of these virtual schools. It would so much easier doing the budget and finance of this is we could see their books and they would let us see their profit margin. Right now, their profit margins are a "black box" and frankly, we don't like it. We don't like that a business would be educating our kids.

Representative Huffman: I met two representatives from the virtual schools at a recent conference and asked what their profit margins were and they told me on the spot. 5.4% Have you asked them for these numbers?

Union rep: (Not joking either!) Ummm......no.

Devlin: Then why don't we just ask, okay? And it's not a bad thing to be a business these days. If you're in the business of providing education, then let them be in business. I would expect them to have a profit margin.

Keep in mind.....that has been a huge point of contention this entire legislative session. That "for profit" companies were the service providers for online education. Our contention all along has been that there are many "for profit" providers for education. Scholastic books, Dell computers, etc. Are we now going to expect that all vendors for schools be non profit? Devlin shut that down in one statement after making that a huge issue at his town hall and the entire legislative session.

Several times that happened during this meeting. Representative Gelser had a few turns at doing the same thing as well. I was absolutely dumbfounded.

Have you ever seen a miracle happen before your eyes? Here is what happened. Devlin knows exactly who I am.

Devlin shut me and others out of his town hall discussion.

As he was winding down the discussion of the unions representatives, he looked me dead in the eye in the audience and said "We want feedback this week from stakeholders in the audience. Can we hear from you this week?" I nodded to him, and he nodded an acknowledgment back to me. I hissed at my friend next to me, "Was he looking at me? Did I see that right?!!!" She said yes. He wants feedback from us parents this week. Whhhhhhhaaaatttt???

Seriously? He didn't meet with us during the legislative session. Didn't us include in membership on the task force and avoided us at a town hall. He used his copy/paste feature to return emails. The bottom line, he didn't want us.

He wants our feedback this week. Friday if possible.

*&@$*&(*!!!!

I dunno.......he is still a democrat with his campaign paid for by teacher's unions, but this isn't the Devlin I know. I am somewhat hopeful, but very cautious.

I anticipate that online schools are going to continue in this state. I anticipate that our voice has screamed loud enough that we will get almost everything we have wanted all along, eventually. I anticipate getting what we want will take a few years, and a whole lot of making sure I show up to these kinds of meetings, often.

Amazing, but not over. Don't turn your back on it for a second.