No input from school districts

Tulsa (Okla.) World: The state Board of Education recently approved a set of emergency rules to comply with a bill passed by the last Legislature that provides for some students to take online educational courses at the expense of their local districts.

Recently, the board abruptly rescinded the rules. Several board members said they had been inundated by calls from people who feared that the rules, written by the state Department of Education and Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Baressi, went too far.

The rules required that local districts offer “individual academically approved online supplemental courses” for any student in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, and that districts pay third-party online “curriculum providers” by shifting up to 100 percent of the state aid funds allocated for the students. The rules appeared to go beyond what was required in the measure passed by the Legislature.

Once again, Baressi and the state department issued rules without any input from local school boards or district officials, and without even telling local officials what they were up to.

This latest action came just a day after it was learned that Baressi and the department had submitted an application for a federal No Child Left Behind Act waiver that allowed for state takeover of some low-performing schools. That, too, was done without local input, and the department tried to keep it quiet until the Tulsa World filed an open records request.