As Reported on June 2, 2013:
Gov. Pat Quinn signed bill HB 494 (voted YES by Larry Walsh Jr. - D-IL Dist.86 Joliet/Elwood) into law May 24, placing a moratorium on charter schools that include virtual schooling components in school districts other than the Chicago School District.
“HB 494 aims to keep Illinois in the dark,” said Ted Dabrowski, vice president of policy for the Illinois Policy Institute and a volunteer board member for Virtual Learning solutions, in a blog post on the IPI’s website.
“It’s a message to the rest of the nation that Illinois is not ready to embrace the technology that is changing how the world operates.”
There are currently two schools in Chicago that heavily rely on virtual learning: the Youth Connection Charter School, which serves at-risk students, and the Chicago Virtual Charter School (CVCS), which offers an online curriculum for students from kindergarten through grade 12.
[This bill puts a halt on further technology which will assist students at schools with their education needs, courtesy of Walsh Jr. and Gov. Quinn.]
“Everybody realizes that digital technology and online resources can enhance higher education,” said Jason Martin, a journalism professor at DePaul.
“Almost every school uses virtual learning to supplement its curriculum,” said Dabrowski. “Whether it’s a Khan Academy video for algebra or a K12 Inc. module for Chinese, schools across the nation are using virtual learning to deliver student-centered education.”
Blended curriculums that used both online learning and traditional teaching methods showed a modest performance increase, according to a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education.
The Chronicle of Higher Education predicts that 3.97 million students will enroll in at least one fully online course in 2014.
Its not too hard to understand Walsh Jr.'s vote on this bill seeing that he had no experience in education when elected in November of 2012.
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