Cyber Charter Schools

The Michigan State House approved the expansion of Cyber Charter Schools by a narrow vote of 56-54. This does not automatically open the doors to expansion, however, as the version passed by the State Senate last year is different. So the bill goes to the Senate, where it will meet its ultimate fate, at least for the current legislative session.

Traditional publicly funded schools oppose the cyber schools. This is no surprise, as they would presumably cut into their class sizes and, in the end, their revenue. That doesn't mean that their concerns are wholly illegitimate, though. They are worried that there are aren't enough assurances within the current proposal to see that the education cyber schools might offer would be adequate. State Schools Superintendent Michael Flanagan believes that we need more data on the current cyber academies (there are two operating in Michigan as of now) before he could support their expansion.

This is all right so far as it goes. Yet as with many other education issues, the entrenched education establishment speaks with something of a forked tongue. It doesn't like cyber schools because they would cut into its domain (a domain it arrogantly has asserted for itself, we hasten to add). Yet all cyber schools do is allow students to do their coursework online. It is interesting to note that several public school districts have in the past and do currently offer what are in effect cyber schools in allowing their students to make up coursework as it is. Warren Consolidated Schools have done this, for one, and there are others. Rochester, Ann Arbor, Algonac; Dearborn, Wayne-Westland, Plymouth and several other school districts have also used cyber education. So with cyber education the rule apparently is that they can do it, but you better not allow kids to do it in their own homes on their own time.

Which leads to the second important point. What really is the difference between cyber schools and home schooling? If parents want to home school their progeny, a right as inviolate as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, why shouldn't they have options in how they do it? It would appear that Lansing is merely attempting to expand upon their rights as parents. That it wants to do so along the lines of what many public school districts are already offering to their charges should not be an issue. If anything, it ought to lend support to the cause of cyber education.

When all gets said and done, this is about control. Does the public school establishment have the right to control education, or do parents? Framed that simply and, we will argue until we are blue in the face, correctly, the answer is easy and obvious. Power to the people!