Local school boards would have greater authority over online programs that run "learning centers" in their jurisdictions under a bill that could be introduced as early as today.

The Senate bill also would create a new Division of Online Learning in the Colorado Department of Education to regulate online programs.

The measure by Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, follows complaints last year about the Hope Online Learning Academy Co-op.

Hope is headquartered in Centennial but is chartered by the tiny Vilas district in southeastern Colorado. Hope runs 79 "learning centers" around the state, mostly along the Front Range, where students work from a curriculum provided by Vilas via the Internet but are supervised by adult mentors.

That arrangement has angered local school boards where the learning centers are.

Under Windels' bill, each Hope center would have to negotiate a "memorandum of understanding" with the local school board. The memo would cover topics ranging from location of the center to advertising and enrollment procedures.

The local board may refuse to allow the center to open if an understanding cannot be reached. Hope could then appeal the decision to the state Board of Education.

Unclear in the bill is what would happen to the existing 79 centers.

The new Division of Online Learning would have control over school districts such as Vilas, which chartered Hope in 2005. Districts that run statewide online programs would have to demonstrate the capacity to adequately supervise them in more than a dozen areas, including curriculum, finance and delivery of services to handicapped and non-English-speaking students.

The bill would require teachers in online programs to hold Colorado teaching licenses. But the Hope mentors would not all have to have licenses, Windels said.

Steven Shapiro, a spokesman for Hope, said school leaders are reviewing the bill.

The measure will come up for a hearing in the Senate Education Committee in a few weeks, Windels said.

Bill's intent

Legislation regulating online schools would:

• Take 1 percent of each school's per-pupil revenue to fund a new state agency to oversee online education.

• Require the agency to monitor online programs and publish an annual report, available on the Internet.

• Allow the new agency to recommend unspecified steps the State Board of Education could take against a nonperforming online school.

• Clarify that online students are subject to the same rules as other youngsters, such as the compulsory education law and the requirement to take statewide achievement tests.

• Require online schools to align their courses with the same state content standards as brick-and-mortar schools.

morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5209