All Kinds of 'Teachers' Are Now on Thin Ice

Heartland in Print
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
December 16, 2007
circ. 230,220

Visions of sugar plums must surely be dancing in the heads of unionized teachers in Wisconsin after the state Court of Appeals ruled Dec. 5 that only state-licensed teachers may teach students in Wisconsin public schools.

The ruling came in a case brought by the teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, against the Northern Ozaukee School District. The district operates the Wisconsin Virtual Academy, a virtual school.

The court ruled that under current state statutes, the state may not fund the academy because the school is not located entirely in the school district and because parents have too large a role in instructing virtual school children.

But the ruling went much further than that. Not only does state law ban unlicensed parents from teaching their children in a virtual school, the court held, but it also bans any unlicensed individuals -- including but not limited to parents -- from "teaching" any child in conventional public schools.

As a Journal Sentinel editorial noted on Dec. 7, the academy is "a turbocharged form of home schooling" ("A blow to innovation"). At the academy, parents are to devote four to five hours per day to working with their children at home. Certified teachers, working from their homes throughout Wisconsin, provide educational materials, assist parents in their work, conduct classes by computer, communicate with students by email, review sample work from the students, and confer several times per month with students and parents.

Virtual schools like the academy - there are about a dozen in the state - offer the best of both worlds. Parents dissatisfied with conventional schools for any reason can home-school without angst since they have certified professionals to guide them.

Even though virtual schools save money, services are not free. The Wisconsin Virtual Academy relies on open enrollment transfer fees to fund its operations. Under the state open enrollment statute, Wisconsin schoolchildren may attend any school district outside their home districts. The non-resident district receives $5,845 per pupil from the student's resident district.

The academy was created in 2003 through a contract between the Northern Ozaukee School District and K12 Inc., a Delaware corporation. K12 provides curriculum, books, and other materials, and it loans computers to its virtual students. The school district's costs are reimbursed, and a fee is paid from the transfer fees. K12 keeps the rest.

One of the grounds WEAC raised was parents play too great a role in the academy, in violation of state law. The court agreed. The relevant law provides: "(a)ny person seeking to teach in a public school ... shall first procure a license or permit" from the state. The law "does not require some of the teachers in a public school to be licensed, but all of them," the court ruled.

And what exactly does the word "teaching" mean? The court adopted the definition urged by WEAC: "'Teaching' means improving pupil learning by planning instruction, diagnosing learning needs, prescribing content delivery through classroom activities, assessing student learning, reporting outcomes to administrators and parents, and evaluating the effects of instruction."

This definition is broad enough, according to Michael Dean, attorney for parents defending the virtual academy, to ban from all public schools all teachers aides, volunteers, guest speakers, work-study instructors, and drug education police officers unless they are certified as teachers.

Dean said he pointed this out during oral arguments before the court, noting the definition also means no textbook or other educational material could be used in the classroom unless authored by a teacher licensed in Wisconsin. It also would ban parents from helping their children with their homework deficiencies and kids from grading one another's papers, Dean said.

The court acknowledged the statute could be read to bar from conventional public school classrooms all teachers aides, volunteers, guest speakers, and others who perform "teaching functions." It is up to the Wisconsin Legislature to fix this "absurd result," the court said.

Given the current partisan divides in Wisconsin - a Republican Assembly, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic governor - that's unlikely to happen, particularly in light of WEAC's lobbying prowess and campaign contribution largess. And if the court's ruling stands - appeals are planned, but it's anyone's guess whether the state supreme court will take the case - WEAC's war chest is likely to grow along with the number of teachers local school districts will have to hire to replace non-certified aides and others who now "teach."

And you think your property taxes are high now.

Maureen Martin (martin@heartland.org), an attorney and senior fellow for legal affairs at The Heartland Institute, lives in Green Lake.