AB 306 / SB 220

 

DATE:		May 7, 2009
TO:		All Legislators
FROM:		Representative Brett Davis, Representative Dan LeMahieu, Senator Luther Olsen
RE:		Co-sponsorship of LRB 2849/1 - Eliminating the Cap on Virtual Schools
Virtual schools continue to provide high quality public education to parents with children who learn better outside the traditional brick and mortar schools. As you know, compromise legislation was passed last legislative session designed to ensure virtual schools remain an option for Wisconsin students. Part of the compromise included an arbitrary enrollment cap of 5,250. Recently, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has notified school districts that the enrollment numbers, combined with new applications, have reached the cap limit. According to DPI, there are 2,314 students either currently attending virtual charter schools under open enrollment or are siblings of such students. There is space for 2,936 new virtual school applicants (5,250-2,314). However, there have been 4,354 new applications submitted to attend virtual charter schools. It is estimated that 1,418 students must be placed on a waiting list. Therefore, we are introducing legislation that will eliminate the arbitrary cap on virtual school enrollment so Wisconsin students will not be denied the opportunity to attend the public school of their choice. An LRB summary is attached below. If you are interested in Co-sponsoring LRB 2849/1, please contact Luke in Representative Davis' office at 6-1192 no later than 4:00pm Friday, May 15, 2009. LRB Analysis Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau Under current law, the number of pupils attending virtual charter schools through the open enrollment program may not exceed 5,250 in any school year. A virtual charter school is a charter school under contract with a school board in which all or a portion of the instruction is provided through means of the Internet, and the  pupils enrolled in and instructional staff employed by the school are geographically remote.   This bill eliminates the virtual charter school enrollment limit beginning in the 2010-11 school year.