Cooper vetoes legislation lifting enrollment cap for virtual charter school

Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday vetoed legislation that would, among other things, get rid of the enrollment cap on one of the state's two virtual charter schools and allow it to grow its population by 20 percent annually if it so chose.

Posted 8:24 p.m. Jul 29, 2019 — Updated 9:17 p.m. Jul 29, 2019

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday vetoed legislation that would, among other things, get rid of the enrollment cap on one of the state’s two virtual charter schools and allow it to grow its population by 20 percent annually if it so chose.

"Current law already allows the State Board of Education to lift the enrollment cap on virtual charter schools," Cooper said in a statement. "Both schools have been low-performing, raising concern about the effectiveness of this pilot. Decisions on adding more students should remain with the board so it can measure progress and make decisions that will provide the best education for students."

How do virtual charter schools work?

North Carolina Virtual Academy and North Carolina Cyber Academy, formerly known as North Carolina Connections Academy, have been operating since 2015. Both have received "D" grades on the state's annual school performance report cards in their first three years of operation, and students taking online classes through them haven't met growth expectations.

Neither of the schools is within 100 students of the 2,592-student cap put in place when they opened.

Both schools are allowed to exceed the enrollment cap if the State Board of Education deems it in the best interest of students. The board recently made that determination for N.C. Virtual Academy.

"Unproven and unaccountable education methods have no place in North Carolina," Mark Jewell, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, said in a statement of support for the veto. "[O]ur students deserve better than the broken promises made by virtual charter schools. We must invest in instruction with the proven educational outcomes that our schools provide and stop wasting money on out-of-state, for-profit experiments."

Nearly 2,500 students have left NC's online charter schools: Why did they leave? Where did they go?

Senate Bill 392 would apply only to N.C. Virtual Academy because N.C. Cyber Academy is undergoing monthly monitoring by the state Charter School Advisory Board. Until it comes off of monitoring status, it would need State Board of Education approval to grow.

The monitoring comes in the wake of a fight between the school and its management company, leading the school to ask the state board to allow it to abandon its operator and run day-to-day operations on its own. The board approved that request.

The vetoed bill also includes provisions lowering the student achievement standard necessary for renewing school charters, requiring criminal background checks for charter school board members and allowing the state superintendent to approve bonds for charter school buildings.

Cooper has vetoed 31 bills since he took office in January 2017, including three this year. Lawmakers have overridden 23 of them, but none so far this year, after Democrats broke the Republican veto-proof majority in both the House and the Senate.

Alex Granados, EducationNC senior reporter, contributed to this report

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