Senate Bill No. 568
(By Senator Bowman)
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[Introduced February 12, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §10-5-2a of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to abolishing the Distance Learning
Coordinating Council.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §10-5-2a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY.
§10-5-2a. West Virginia distance learning coordinating council;
creation; duties.
(a) The Legislature finds that the educational benefits of
making a broader range of courses available to West Virginia
students, and the economic benefits from continuing education and
staff development for businesses, industry and the professions, are
immeasurable and that distance learning technology offers an
efficient means of delivering such education and personnel development courses. The Legislature further finds that distance
learning technology requires a substantial financial investment and
the acquisition and utilization of such technology should,
therefore, be coordinated among the various affected agencies.
(b)
To facilitate such coordination, there is hereby created
a West Virginia distance learning coordinating council which shall
be composed of one representative of each of the following:
SatNet, EdNet, the educational broadcasting authority, the West
Virginia Library Commission, the state Department of Education, the
higher education central office, the Department of Administration's
division of information systems and communications and the office
of the secretary of education and the arts. The chair elected by
the council shall serve a term of one year, at which time the
council shall elect a new chair. A member of the council may not
serve for more than two consecutive terms as chair, except by
unanimous vote of the council.
The council shall meet at least quarterly and shall develop
long-range plans to integrate the instructional telecommunications
system, to coordinate distance learning in West Virginia and to
clarify the roles of the agencies involved in the state's distance
learning enterprise. The council shall submit an annual report to
the Governor and the Legislature, which includes its
recommendations for achieving the best use of limited resources in
the development and operation of a distance learning technology
system.
(c) A goal of the council is the creation of a statewide
technology system linking universities and colleges, schools,
libraries and, eventually, homes with software, databases and video
learning capabilities. In pursuit of this goal, the council shall
determine the most effective and efficient ways to integrate the
capabilities of the state for producing, delivering and receiving
electronic instruction and establish a comprehensive long-range
plan to further the cooperation and coordination of the various
educational and other agencies of the state, and the county boards
of education, in establishing distance learning technology.
Effective July 1, 2010, the Distance Learning Coordinating Council
previously established by this subsection is abolished.
(d) (c) There is
hereby created in the State Treasury a
special fund designated the "Distance Learning Fund" which
shall be
is under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Education and the
Arts for use solely for the purposes of the distance learning grant
program as provided in this section.
Appropriate guidelines for participation by school districts,
state institutions of higher education, public libraries and public
broadcasting stations, in the grant program, shall be established
by the distance learning coordinating council subject to approval
by the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education
Accountability. Such guidelines shall include application
procedures and shall establish policies for awarding grants in the
event that more grant applications are received than there are funds available to honor the applications in any fiscal year. In
allocating funds to applicants, the council may give due
consideration to revenues available from all other sources. The
State Board of Education shall approve courses offered through this
program at the elementary and secondary education level. The
higher education governing boards shall approve courses taught at
the post-secondary level.
(e) (d) In any fiscal year moneys in the fund shall be used
first to ensure that any and all school districts, state
institutions of higher education, public libraries and public
television stations seeking aid under this program shall receive
telecommunications equipment necessary to participate in the
satellite learning process; second, to provide the school districts
and state institutions of higher education with access to subjects
at the advanced level or the remedial level or which are not taught
in the schools of the district or the service area or campus; and
third, to provide enrichment classes, continuing education and
professional development. However, the council may set aside a
portion of the funds to be used to contract with state institutions
of higher education, state institutions of public education and
public broadcasting stations to develop instructional programs for
grades kindergarten through twelve. Funds may also be used for
undergraduate and graduate course work suitable for broadcast to
the school districts, state institutions of higher education, as
appropriate, for continuing education and professional development for business and industry seminars and to develop the capability to
transmit programs cited in this section.
(f) (e) Participation by a local school district, a state
institution of higher education, a public library or a public
broadcasting station in the program established by this section
shall be voluntary.
No A school district, state institution of
higher education, public library or public broadcasting station
receiving funds under this program
shall may not use those funds
for any purpose other than that for which they were intended. Any
school district, state institution of higher education, public
library or public broadcasting station
shall be is eligible to
receive funds under this program regardless of its curriculum,
local wealth or previous contractual arrangements to receive
satellite broadcast instruction.
(g)(f) The Secretary of Education and the Arts on behalf of
the State of West Virginia may contract with institutions of higher
education and the State Board of Education for the development or
operation, or both, of state employee training programs transmitted
by telecommunications technology.
Instructional programs developed under this section which are
transmitted one-way through the airwaves or by cable shall be
available to all residents of this state without charge or fee to
the extent permitted by the West Virginia Constitution. "Without
charge or fee" shall not require the providing of equipment to
transmit or receive telecommunications instruction or the providing of commercial cable service. If the instructional program involves
two-way, interactive communication between the instructor and the
participant, the district or institution operating the program may
prescribe academic prerequisites and limit the number of persons
who may enroll in the specific program and give preference to
residents of the district or institutional attendance area who are
age twenty-one or younger but shall not discriminate against any
resident on any other basis. A fee may be charged which will be
paid directly by the individual participant for the specific
program, but the fee shall be equal for all such participants. If
a subscription fee is charged by the originator of the program, the
district or institution may pay the subscription fee for all
participants from a grant under this section or from any other
public or private fund legally authorized to be used for this
purpose. Printed materials designed to facilitate or complement
telecommunications programs or electronic reproduction thereof may
be made available for loan by the school district, institution of
higher education through the public library system or the
curriculum technology resource center, subject to the normal rules
and regulations of the lending system and in such quantities as may
be approved by the governing body of the district or institution.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to abolish the Distance
Learning Coordinating Council.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.