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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: MI Has Virtually Nothing to Gain from Cyber Schools

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Thursday, October 27, 2011   

LANSING, Mich. - Laptops and e-readers quickly are replacing pencils and papers in most classrooms. But should the classrooms themselves be replaced by Internet connections?

The Legislature is considering Senate Bill 619, which would allow full-time cyber schools to expand enrollment in Michigan without having to show any demonstrated success.

Online learning has been touted as a way for cash-strapped states such as Michigan to educate children while saving money, but a new report by education professors from the University of Colorado-Boulder finds no reliable evidence that these virtual institutions are an effective alternative to brick-and-mortar schools.

Teri Battaglieri, director of the Great Lakes Center for Education and Research, says she's not comfortable with all the unknowns in the cyber-school equation.

"If this bill passes, our children are going to be used as guinea pigs in an unproven experiment."

The report suggests that if states are seriously considering full-time cyber schools, any legislation which turns taxpayer money over to the private companies that administer these programs needs to include strict regulations, including authentication of student work and financial audits. For the sake of Michigan's children, Battaglieri says, lawmakers need to tread very carefully through this uncharted territory.

"What we really need to do is to perhaps support some pilot programs in the state - and do a very careful evaluation of these pilot programs - before we throw the baby out with the bath water."

Cyber-school advocates cite benefits to a virtual learning environment in an increasingly technology-driven society, and many education experts support using online learning as a supplemental tool. Full-time cyber schools operate in 27 states.

Five private companies dominate the full-time cyber school field, with an estimated 200,000 students enrolled.

The CU-Boulder study and policy recommendations are online at nepc.colorado.edu. The text of Senate Bill 619 is at a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billintroduced/Senate/pdf/2011-SIB-0619.pdf" target="parent">legislature.mi.gov.


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