If a bill requiring high school freshmen to enroll in at least one online course makes its way to Gov. Mitch Daniel’s desk for a signature, schools could be scrambling to pay for the classes.
Senate Bill 179, which is awaiting consideration in the Indiana House of Representatives, would require all public school students in Indiana to take a “virtual instruction course” before graduating with a Core 40 diploma, beginning with the freshman class of 2013. Each school corporation would be required to provide at least three virtual instruction courses in which a student can enroll.
The legislation passed through the Senate last week, 38-12.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett has expressed his support for the bill.
“Our mission is to provide every Hoosier student an education that is the best in the nation. To do this, we must graduate tech-savvy students who are ready to be innovators and leaders,” Bennett said in a release. “Indiana is pushing forward with innovative programs and policies to develop a top-notch workforce — a factor that can be instrumental in driving economic development throughout the state.”
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Columbia City, said it would help students “ultimately be prepared for our workforce.”
Lori Lund, Martinsville High School’s guidance director, said she feels there are simply “too many questions and not enough answers” surrounding the proposed legislation.
“There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered before they should move forward with this. If they want this done during school time, that’s going to be an issue. If they want it done during students’ own time, they are assuming that everyone has a computer and that isn’t the case,” Lund said.
Finding funds
Another major concern, she said, is how to pay for courses.
The bill states that if the school corporation provides the virtual instruction course, the corporation must fund the virtual instruction course through its resources and will not receive additional funding from the state. In addition, the bill says school corporations are prohibited from charging students or their parents a fee to offset the cost of the classes.
Parents who opt to enroll their student in an online course not offered by the school corporation will be forced to pay for that program on their own. If the class meets the high school’s requirements, it can then be counted toward course credit, the bill states.
While there are a few online courses available at Martinsville High School — such as programs through Indiana University High School, Brigham Young University and Indiana Online Academy — Lund said there are only a handful of students who take the classes online, and most enroll only to fulfill credit requirements due to scheduling conflicts or credit recovery needs. This includes students who have failed a course and need to retake it.
“There are a few students — and they are typically the upper level grades — that want to take every advanced class we offer,” Lund said. “For example, if a student needed to take Spanish III and we couldn’t fit it into their schedule, they might take part of the class online.”
However, students and their parents, are required to pay for the online courses which average $300 per credit hour, she said. And for a student on free- or reduced-priced meals, paying that fee might not be possible.
Defining online courses
Lund said she would also like to see more information related to requirements for the online courses, such as a list of which programs would be considered “accredited” and thus would count toward a student’s degree.
“At this point, we don’t know what constitutes an ‘online class’ according to the state. and we don’t know if that has to be done during the school day or not,” she said. “That’s going to make a big difference.”
Martinsville High School Assistant Principal Jeff Racy said there are approximately 750 computers available for student use at the high school.
“If we were forced to do something totally online, every day, for our entire school population once during their high school career. we would probably need another six computer labs with 25 computers each. We would need to go from a minimum of 750 machines to 900 at the minimum,” Racy said. “And there’s no room. Every room in the building is at capacity.”
And it isn’t just the hardware that would be costly, he said.
“Someone is going to want to make a large amount of money off the resources that we need to run these programs. The hardware, that’s a relatively minor problem,” he said. “The software is where the cost will be.”
Before state legislators make a decision, Lund said she hopes they will “get their ducks in a row.”
“Our students have cellphones and they use texting and they are on Facebook. They know how to work a computer. There’s no question about that,” Lund said.