BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM- Greater restrictions on Oregon’s virtual schools will now be presented to the Legislature in February.

In the final meeting of Oregon’s Online Learning Task Force, the Task Force voted to approve its Legislative Concept 15, which will be introduced before the House Education Committee in February’s Interim Session.

Despite concerns with the bill from both sides, the Task Force’s limited timeline pushed the bill to be passed, rather than for no bill at all to come from the group.

Objections to approval of the bill came from Rep. John Huffman (R-The Dalles) and Oregon Virtual Academy board member Mark Horning. Combined with this dissent, the Legislative members of the Task Force who supported the bill’s proposal in February made clear that a “yes” vote on the Task Force does not mean a “yes” vote in the Legislature.

Concerns came from both sides of the aisle regarding requiring school administrators to be licensed by the state, “too weak” language (not requiring specific things but simply requiring a plan), equity of the programs not being adequately addressed, and forcing disclosure of the schools’ business plans, among other things.

In an effort to allay public concerns, Rep. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis) said, “There is nothing in this draft that closes ORCA or ORVA or any other virtual school option for students at all.”

This bill, however, does not lift the enrollment caps and the 50-50 requirement that were put into place in the last legislative session to limit these online learning programs. These requirements cap further enrollment of students and mandate that 50% of students enrolled in the schools must reside in the charter school’s sponsoring school district.

In addition to the recommendations from the Task Force, the future of online charter schools will be sent back to the State Board of Education in order to finish those recommendations which the Task Force could not address adequately in their meetings.

Brad Lynn, who represented the “brick and mortar” charter schools on the Task Force, said, “As we empower the State Board of Education to review and develop a new governance model for virtual schools, [I hope] that we encourage them to preserve parental choice in enrolling students in these online school options.”