LANSING – Critics of increasing enrollment in cyberschools pushed the idea Wednesday that the way SB 619 was amended at the last minute could actually allow for five times the number of students than supporters insisted it would, but the bill’s backers and the administration say the 2 percent cap will be strictly enforced.

Late Thursday, Governor Rick Snyder and Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan issued statements together addressing the situation.

“The intent of Senate Bill 619 is to cap cyber charter school enrollment at 2 percent of student population. That is how it will be enforced,” Flanagan said in the statement. “If and when that limit is reached, no further students will be permitted to enroll in a cyber charter school. The unrealistic figures being thrown around are hypothetical and imprudent. Michigan’s public community schools are outstanding, and our focus must remain on student achievement and providing a quality education for our children.”

Snyder said the expansion of cyberschools will be good for the state.

“We believe that online learning is a good thing, and providing interested parents and students the ability to enroll in a cyber charter school increases opportunities for a quality education,” Snyder said in the statement. “It improves access to learning for those families that feel it is the best for them. In so doing we must and we will maintain proper oversight while continuing to strengthen our outstanding traditional public schools.”

House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall) issued a statement saying the amendments added clearly limited enrollment to 2 percent of the student population statewide.

“The 2 percent student population cap was clearly our intent and will clearly be the law,” Bolger said in a statement. “When Governor Snyder signs the bill it will be the responsibility of the executive branch and its employees to adhere to the new law. We know the administration and its employees will abide by the law. Anyone suggesting they won’t through foolish conspiracy theories should redirect their energy away from what adults want to squabble about and refocus on ensuring students have access to a wide array of quality learning opportunities.”

The “conspiracy theory” opponents floated is that up to 150,000 students could enroll in cyberschools eventually, much more than the 30,000 that was estimated by the legislation’s proponents.

Some supporters admit privately that theoretically it is numerically possible, but that it is so unlikely for a variety of reasons that the idea itself is preposterous.

House Republicans capped the number of students that can attend at 2,500 in the first year, and not more than 5,000 the second year. In the third and subsequent years, enrollment cannot exceed more than 10,000.

If the Department of Education determines the number of students enrolled in cyberschools exceeds 1 percent of the total statewide membership in public schools in the 2012-13 fiscal year, new cyberschool contracts cannot be issued in the 2013-14 school year and cyberschools cannot enroll any new students that year. That increases to 2 percent on July 1, 2013, or about 30,000 students.

The new version from the House also limits the number of cyberschools to no more than 5 through December 31, 2013, 10 in 2014 and no more than 15 in subsequent years.

Presuming the schools stay at or below the 2 percent level by the time all 15 schools, each with a maximum capacity of 10,000, come on line, those 15 schools could theoretically serve a total of 150,000 students. The projected student population in the 2013-14 school year is about 1.5 million, so the schools would actually be serving about 10 percent of the population at that point.

The Department of Education could then say the 2 percent threshold was exceeded, but because all 15 eligible schools at 10,000 students each had opened, there would be no mechanism to roll the number back toward the 2 percent level.

The idea that the schools already in existence would purposely limit themselves from adding new students until their competitors opened up new schools so that they could all conspire to go out and each enroll 10,000 students the same year is nonsensical, one source said.

“Our interpretation is the 2 percent does mean 2 percent,” said Sara Wurfel, Snyder’s press secretary. “That’s exactly how we are interpreting it and how it will be enforced.”

Another consideration is that there are currently two cyberschools in operation in the state and are capped at an enrollment of 1,000 each. Because SB 619 was not given immediate effect, those two schools will have to keep their enrollment at 1,000 as the next school year begins because the law, if signed, would not take effect until the spring of 2013.

As the 2013-14 school year begins, those two schools will be past their third year of operation, which would mean under the bill that they could each have an enrollment of 10,000. Also, three new cyberschools could open that year, with a cap of 2,500 students each.

At that point, if all five schools maxed out their enrollment, it would total 27,500 students.

The following school year, the department of education could authorize up to five additional cyberschools, but one source said that was highly unlikely, and the department would probably only add one new school, because it would bring it so close to the 2 percent cap.

So if one new school came on board with another 2,500 students that would put the total statewide enrollment at 30,000. However, the three schools that started the previous year would be allowed under the bill to double in size, adding a total of 7,500 students, for a grand total statewide of 37,500.

The following July, according to the bill, the department of education would make a determination if the number of students in cyberschools was greater than 2 percent and if it was, it would instruct the schools they could not enroll any more students and no new schools would be authorized.

Wurfel said the department would be monitoring the enrollment much more closely than the annual review written into the bill.

Also, cyberschool supporters fear that the way the bill is written, that after the first two years there is nothing instructing the department to check annually to see if the cyberschool enrollment has dropped back below 2 percent.

If students graduate, leave the state or go back to public schools, the cyberschools would eventually die off, because there is nothing in the bill giving the department the ability to let the schools enroll more students after they hit 2 percent statewide the first time.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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