Virtual Learning Solutions Slams Local School Boards in 1,080-Page Response

A question posed at Thursday night's candidate forum in Geneva brought an interesting comment by Geneva School Board President Mark Grosso.

In response to an audience-written query about the proposed Fox Valley K-12 virtual school, Grosso said he found it curious that, for an Internet-based company with experts in the technology field, Virtual Charter Schools was slow and conventional in bringing the proposal forward to local school boards.

"All their communication was by U.S. Mail," he said.

Grosso said he has to vote on the virtual-school issue Monday night and couldn't comment too much, but added "I have some real concerns regarding their accountatiblity."

The comment echoes some of the distrust expressed by school board members and educators in virtually every one of the 18 Fox Valley School Districts that have been identified as potential service areas for the online charter school.

In broad strokes, the charter school would use school district tax dollars to offer online curriculum for families who prefer that medium to the traditional bricks-and-mortar public-school options.

All eight of the Geneva School Board candidates said Thursday night that they would not support this particular online charter-school proposal.

K-12 responded in a sophisticated Internet fashion Friday, when it released via email a 1,080-page PDF document stating its case for the charter option.

The report is attached here, for your light-reading pleasure.

It makes strong, data-supported arguments for online charter schools as well as the performance of the K-12 schools elsewhere in the country. The document, introduced and signed by Virtual Learning Solutions President Sharnell Jackson, takes a few moments to slam what VLS calls "special interest groups"—notably including local school board members—for trying protect their "power base."

From the report:

"The many adult interest groups that live off our public education system are already doing their best to co-opt digital learning for their own ends—and to ensure that nobody uses it to threaten their power, membership, or revenue base. Two such groups are especially powerful players in the politics and policies of public education.

"First are local districts and their school boards, vigorously represented by the National School Board Association (NSBA). This crowd would stifle the openness and global reach of digital learning in the name of district empowerment and local monopoly. According to Ann Flynn, NSBA’s director of education technology, online learning 'should be something that school districts can control.'

"Such a cramped viewpoint has even been adopted by some smart reform thinkers. Writing recently in Education Next, for example, veteran thought leader (and digital-learning advocate) Paul Peterson notes that 'if digital learning is to advance beyond the pilot stage, it needs to work within the current system of public education, not against it.' "

Area school districts are expected to vote on the proposals, starting this week.

Districts Targeted for a Fox River Valley Region

1. School District U-46
2. Indian Prairie School District 204
3. Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202
4. Community Unit School District 300
5. Valley View Community Unit School District 365U
6. Naperville Community Unit School District 203
7. Oswego Community Unit School District 308
8. East Aurora School District 131
9. St. Charles Community Unit School District 303
10. Community Unit School District 200
11. West Aurora School District 129
12. Batavia Public School District 101
13. Geneva Community Unit School District 304
14. DeKalb Community Unit School District 428
15. Yorkville Community Unit School District 115
16. Kaneland Community Unit School District 302
17. Sycamore Community Unit School District 427
18. Central Community Unit School District 301