This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A state lawmaker wants to see more online courses for Utah high school students, and he wants to send state education dollars to public and private entities to offer them.
Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, is working on a bill with Parents for Choice in Education intended to expand opportunities for high school students to earn credit online by creating a way to authorize public and private providers. It also seeks to make it easier for students to take advantage of those offerings. High school students would initially be allowed to take up to two courses online. The funding would follow the students, meaning instead of a student's regular school getting all the funding for that student, whoever provided the course would get part of the money.
"We ought to be willing to have our institutions, our schools, compete along with everybody else for students interest in obtaining high school credit," Stephenson said. "Online has the capacity to individualize instruction in ways that a traditional classroom does not. We can see that many students who are currently falling between the cracks and failing in school actually thrive in an online environment."
Some, however, are concerned about the potential cost of the proposal to the public school system.
"Before we start talking about educational experiments, we need to fund the education system that we have," said Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh, Utah Education Association president. "We are once again talking about taking money away from an already strapped, overburdened, underfunded system in our state."
Utah students may already take some courses online though such providers as the Utah Electronic High School, some school districts and some charter schools. But Stephenson's proposed bill seeks to encourage more offerings in addition to changing the way they're funded.
Under the proposal, a course provider would receive part of the funding for the student upfront and the rest once the student completed the course — a measure meant to hold providers accountable. Providers would initially be school districts, statewide programs or charter schools. Before the second year, the state school board would create a process for other public and private programs outside of districts and charter schools to provide courses.
All high school students would be eligible to participate, and the number of courses they would be allowed to take would increase over time. A student would be allowed to take any course aligned with his official graduation/post-secondary plan regardless of whether the student's main school offered it. And students would be allowed to choose their provider. Private and home-schooled students would be eligible in the program's third year. For core courses, providers would administer state tests.
Judi Clark, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, said expanding online offerings would help prepare students for the 21st-century global economy.
"We need to stop limiting innovation because we are worried about who gets to keep their money, and we need to really put the emphasis on funding the solutions that work for our high school students today, tomorrow and in the future," Clark said.