Candidate Questionnaire
Thank you for stepping out to serve your friends, neighbors and citizens across the state as an elected representative in the Washington State Legislature!
Our families value your expertise and would like to hear from you.
Thousands of students across the state have enrolled in one of many online K-12 public school programs to meet their needs including: medical, special education, individualized instruction, work schedules and difficulties in traditional classroom settings. Families launched Washington Families for Online Learning as a non-profit 501(c)4 coalition to support their children's innovative, impressive, individualized educational opportunities. We all share the same goal: the best possible public education for our children.
A little background...
Online public school programs are meeting student's educational needs through innovative, individualized mastery-based learning. Online programs often provide a wide variety of traditional hands-on instructional materials and always provide the support of a Washington certified teacher. A Washington certified teacher delivers their instruction and students learning online have a much higher level of accountability for academic progress than if they were in a traditional setting. Online public schools are regulated by the local school board of the sponsoring school district and the state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction .
Teachers closely manage their students' individual learning plans to make sure their students meet all local and state academic, accountability and attendance requirements. Student progress is reported online daily, often hourly, as students complete their assignments. Teachers connect with their students through regular email and phone conversations. Students and teachers also meet in live online group sessions and class field trips.
Our state's "choice" law provides for Basic Education Allowance (BEA) funds to follow full time students to the school district providing the student's education. Students may enroll in a combination of traditional and online programs when school districts have agreements to share the student's educational opportunities and educational funding.
Our families are interested in your experiences and beliefs about online learning. Thank you in advance for taking about ten minutes to answer our six multiple choice online questions. You can do it now at https://sites.google.com/site/washingtononlinefamilies or anytime before the last day, June 30.
Your responses will go to thousands of WA Families for Online Learning members in our 2010 Voter Guide. We'll also share it with media folks and post it on our website, http://www.waonlinefamilies.org/ .
Feel free to call (GT at 253-564-9779) or email (onlinefamiliesg@gmail.com ) with any questions or concerns you may have. We look forward to receiving your questionnaire by June 30th.
Thanks again for being willing to serve in the WA State Legislature at this challenging time!
Rich Dingle
President, Washington Families for Online Learning
