The uglier side of politics reared its head in the last couple of days. In this instance, the victim appears to be the virtual school movement and its students and their parents. The larger loss is the innovative approach to education that looked to be worth fully exploring.
How did this occur? WEAC (Wisconsin Education Association Council), the largest of the two major teachers' unions in Wisconsin flexed its muscle. It called in some political chits it has amassed by supporting Democrats with both money and 'in kind' services.
Why did this occur? Because WEAC is threatened by anything that deviates from the norm that WEAC has worked so diligently for years to establish and protect. Never mind that the norm has some very real problems. Never mind that virtual schools showed some real promise. Never mind that students and parents are hurt. It has nothing to do with anything except the survival and dominance of WEAC.
It is so egregious, that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial staff dealt with it in this morning's editorial titled 'A Failed Compromise'.
Patrick McIlheran also discussed this in his column, Senate says whoa on innovation, and pointed out that some 23,000 students use the current open enrollment law to engage in home study. Some 3,300 of those are students in virtual schools. The law didn't limit the growth of these virtual schools until a recent court decision in a case brought by WEAC.
WEAC would run the risk of fewer members since teachers in a virtual school have the ability to teach more students at the same time with no diminution of results. This is a threat to the number of teachers who would pay dues to the union. It is also a threat since there just might be a better solution to existing education problems that WEAC didn't create.
We can't have that kind of blasphemy going on now, can we?
