House lawmakers want to open up an experimental virtual classroom program to possibly hundreds of thousands of Florida's home-schooled and private school students.
The K-8 Virtual School Program was funded at $7.2 million last year, which allowed just under 1,400 kindergarten through eighth-grade students to get a free computer, Internet account and books to take all their classes online. Students were only eligible if they'd attended public schools the prior year.
But a House bill that cleared its first committee stop Tuesday would open the doors to all 240,000 private school and 52,000 home-schooled students in those grades statewide.
That could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and it's sponsor, Rep. Will Weatherford of Wesley Chapel, said he and other lawmakers would work to cap the number of students let in due to the tight budget year. He said it could be "well below 10,000" students.
But even that many students would cost $52 million, based on what the state spent last year per online student.
The bill also provides for the money to come through the state funding system for public schools, which alarmed Democrats on the House Education Innovation and Career Preparation Committee.
"I don't want to do anything that's going to hurt the existing public schools," said Weatherford, who was home-schooled with his eight brothers and sisters, including current Florida State quarterback Drew Weatherford.
"We're not looking to go crazy."
Two companies, Florida Connections Academy and Florida Virtual Academy, are approved to provide the service through nine public school districts.
The bill could also face legal scrutiny by defining the online academies as public schools but then capping the students who can participate.