Uncharted territory

Lansing online school; 7 teachers, $9.6 M budget

Posted

One of the newest charter schools in Lansing has no school building or buses.

There’s 372 students enrolled and seven teachers.

The statewide web-based school will cost Michigan taxpayers $11.1 million, a bone of contention for some Democrats in the state Legislature.

Democrats say these cyber schools don´t deserve the same amount of state funding that traditional brick-and-mortar schools receive (about $7,000 per-student in Lansing) because the charters aren´t faced with the same overhead costs.

Many of these schools don´t have physical classrooms. So they don´t need to pay for rent, gas, electricity, water or busing.

Online-based Insight School of Michigan is a good example. Students there do all the assignments and lessons online, not at the office park address on 6512 Centurion Drive in Delta Township.

It spends about $5.7 million on instruction, but the school won´t publicly disclose the seven teachers´ salaries.

The school uses another $3.9 million for support services like administration and maintenance, without needing to pay transportation costs for the kids.

And while many schools around the state are running deficits, this one managed a $1.5 million surplus for 2014-15.

What will they use it for? Marcus Moore, head of school, wouldn´t immediately say.

When the question was first posed, he said he didn´t “feel comfortable” answering the question. He later responded via email that the decision is up to the board of directors.

Moore also refused to comment on whether cyber schools have fewer costs than traditional ones, or whether he thinks they should have the same funding level.

But a new bill from Rep. Rashida Tlaib , D-Detroit, would essentially slash funding for online schools in half.

“Cyber schools have extremely low costs and don’t have to transport their students,” Tlaib said. “We need to have a level playing field so that all Michigan kids have the opportunity to get a great education.”

State Reps. Andy Schor, D-Lansing, and Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, also sponsored the legislation, along with 32 other Democrats.

They argue that the brick-and-mortar schools should be getting more than the virtual ones.

“It doesn´t make a whole lot of sense to give equal funding to cyber schools,” Schor said. “The more of these that pop up, the less you have for traditional public schools. It´s spreading these limited dollars thin.” Based on the recent history of Republicans striking Democrat-proffered amendments to the 2014 education budget that would have limited that funding, it seems unlikely for the bill to gain any traction.

“Our Republican colleagues have gaveled down each and every one,” Schor said.

No Republicans have endorsed the bill.

Insight is an online-based school for grades 6 through 12.

According to a press release, Insight “focuses on helping students who are struggling in their education due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to, learning or behavioral issues, bullying or a lack of effective alternatives at a brick-andmortar school.”

Central Michigan University is the authorizing agency for the school.

Moore said in a statement, "Our goal is to help our students grow to where they need to be in their educational careers. Our indi vidualized approach to education is based on decades of research about how students learn best, and we´re committed to every child in our program."

Insight uses the K12 curriculum, generated by K12 Inc., a for-profit, publicly traded online charter school corporation According to its website, K12 offers public school programs in 34 states plus the District of Columbia.

A simple Google search is full of reports from other states of low academic achievement, schools cutting ties with the curriculum and stock price tumbles.

This April the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced it would no longer accept coursework from 24 virtual charters that use K12 to provide their online curriculum, including both Agora Cyber Charter and California’s largest online charter network, the California Virtual Academy (CAVA).

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here




Connect with us