CALUMET — An Education Policy Report published by Michigan State University titled: “At the Crossroads: A Quarter Century of State Control,” stated: “As in other states, Michigan’s public school system developed around locally-governed and operated school districts, Over the last two decades, however, teaching and learning in Michigan’s schools have increasingly been shaped by state officials in Lansing. To a far greater extent than in the past, the state now exercises broad control over the funding, curriculum, student assessment, and personnel policies of Michigan’s public schools.”

The report states that the centralization of authority over school funding came first in 1994, with the passage of a major school finance reform, Proposal A.

“Proposal A,” the report said, “shifted control over most K-12 education funding from local voters to the state.”

When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Executive Order, 2020-35, suspended in-person instruction for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year, the order allowed individual districts some flexibility on how alternative learning would be conducted.

The passage of Proposal A created an atmosphere in which the Michigan Department of Education began treating each of the school districts in the state as one large district, by issuing cookie-cutter-type policies that applied to every school.

“One of the first memos that the MDE put out,” said Calumet-Laurium-Keweenaw Schools Superintendent, Christopher Davis, “was telling schools what they cannot do; ‘here’s the box that we want you to operate within, and given any extenuating circumstances, we’re not even going to advise you to seek some flexibility and alternatives.”

Davidson added that it took Gov. Whitmer’s executive order to return some of that flexibility to the individual school districts.

“Regardless of political stance,” said Davidson, “a lot of us are just appreciative of that Executive Order 2020-35.”

That flexibility is providing the school districts the tools necessary in developing alternative student learning, which Davidson said CLK Schools had in place before the original order suspending classroom instruction.

One example Davidson cited is what he referred to as the CLK Virtual Academy, officially known as the the Upper Peninsula Virtual Academy (UPVA).

UPVA is a Michigan public school offering online courses to all Upper Peninsula students, in grades K-12. Students can enroll as a part-time or full-time student with Gladstone Area Schools, or Public Schools of Calumet, Laurium and Keweenaw through the Schools of Choice program.

Online courses provide students the flexibility to work anywhere, and any time, that works for them. Courses taken through UPVA are no cost to the families, up to 12 courses per student per year. Each online course has a content-expert teacher to assist students. Students are also be assigned a local mentor teacher who will have regular contact with the student, and monitor their progress and grades. Full-time students must take the state assessment tests, and can earn a Michigan high school diploma.

“From the beginning there have been zero hiccups,” Davidson said. “There have been zero delays in that program. From the get-go, it was designed for at-home learning. The technology was in place — the educators, and support, all that stuff was in place, and those students have continued to progress.”

Provided with the necessary flexibility previously denied by the MDE, Davidson said his support staff, the para-professionals, wasted no time in adapting to the new system of educating.

“They’re in different working conditions now,” Davidson said, “but they continue to support our students on a weekly basis, check in with them, provide them academic support, and moral support.”