A compromise on virtual schools in Wisconsin may now be in jeopardy. Announced just last month, the wheels may be coming off this deal . Governor Jim Doyle now insists on an enrollment cap for the increasingly popular schools, and a study of their effect on "bricks and mortar" schools. It was left to Racine Democrat John Lehman to carry water for Doyle on the Senate floor Tuesday. "Let's try to have a reasonable restriction while we look at it," Lehman said. "If necessary, the legislature can come back and . . . change that cap of 4500."
New Berlin Republican, Luther Olson , who worked on the compromise with Lehman, wasn't buying it. "What the governor is really saying is 'I want lock down the doors to virtual charter schools . . . and if you don't do that, I'm going to burn down the school,' because that's what happens when the bill gets vetoed." Olson said the amendment to the compromise is nothing more than a special interest group — the teachers union — getting its way, and that WEAC 's goal is to shut down the virtual charter schools.
