Patch Wheaton, IL --The District 200 Board of Education on Wednesay will vote on a resolution to deny the Illinois Virtual Charter School at Fox Valley proposal to bring an online education program to District 200.
At a March 18 public hearing, representatives from Illinois Virtual Learning Solutions and K-12 presented information about the proposed program, community members asked questions and shared their opinions on the proposal and District 200 staff asked more than 80 questions about the program’s general operation, curriculum, instruction and finances.
While the representatives responded to a few of the questions, District 200 Superintendent Dr. Brian Harris asked for answers to all of the questions by March 20, according to a District 200 memo. The district received the 1,000-page response on Friday, April 5 and was “too late” for consideration, according to the memo.
Geneva Patch provided the following information from the 1,080-page PDF K-12 released stating its case for the charter option:
"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.' "
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The District 200 Board of Education will vote at its meeting 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 10 at Longfellow Elementary School.
*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
*Related:*
· *UPDATE Fox Valley Charter School Controversy: K12 Responds to NBC5 Tennessee Report of Grade Tampering
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· 'Virtual' Charter School Wants Tax Dollars From Wheaton, 17 Other Fox Valley Districts Reported by Patch 4 minutes ago.