Hancock: ‘That’s as local as it gets’

Rep. Brian Cronin, D-Boise, asked Jason Hancock why SB 1184 includes a clause that allows parents to sign up their students for any online course “with or without” the permission of their school or district, and the districts have to pay for it. “I don’t understand why that provision is in there,” Cronin said. “Clearly we’re taking local control away from the districts where you would think that the school boards would want to be controlling the quality of the course work that would be done online. … Can you talk about why the districts lose control there?”

Hancock replied, “I don’t see how control gets any more local than a parent getting to decide what kind of a class their child takes, that’s as local as it gets.” He said once the state Board of Education sets requirements for online courses for graduation, it likely would give districts the say over which classes they want taken online, though “they don’t necessarily control which provider they take it from, but I suspect through the contracting process you’ll find that most students will go with the provider that the district has contracted with and is making available to them.”