Posted on 10/19/2012 10:28:42 AM PDT by oliverdarcy
Minnesota law requires that the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) give approval to any free online courses made available in the state, for state residents, officials have confirmed to Campus Reform.
The law has been in place for years, but it gained notoriety this week after a small online education institution, Coursera, claims they were informed by OHE, the same branch of government that administers financial aid for state schools, that they operating illegally by offering free online courses.
Coursera, which offers online classes on a variety of academic disciplines, claims on its website that they were “informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so.”
Coursera further advises students that if they are a “resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota.”
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreform.org ...
THe EDUcation unions are in panic mode-
Why? because- there are several (PRIVATE- NON union)colleges
offering both FREE and substaniallly reduced cost
courses- guess what - this is their Govt. buddies
just running interference for them-
Home Schooling
Christian Schools
Now online- reduced cost-
Maybe a break in the unions will finally occur
Looks like they will have to start charging $1/year admission.
yep.mandated “low flush” toilets and school lunch inspectors.
I remember when this was a free country.
So, how many Minnesota citizens are going to go along with this? What’s the penalty if you ignore the law? Does this include homeschooling families, too? Are they allowed to take on-line courses for K12 at least? What if a parent wants a particular religious on-line course for his kids? Or what if an adult wants to take an on-line college course from a religious institution?
What’s the point of this asinine law?
They have to keep Minnesota voters uneducated so they will keep voting Democrat.
It would be unconstitutional for the FEDERAL governmet to do it- but this is a STATE law isnt it?
Can a State write a law that goes against the first amendment to the US Constitution?
Is it one of the enumerated powers?
More evidence we pay unnecessary taxes and all government should be part time and parts abolished altogether
That one matters to the press, you know.
Great publicity for coursera. I just signed up for one of their database classes.
Minnesota. This does not surprise me one bit. According to one bureaucrap in Minnestoopid, I don;t have an engineering degree because it’s not from the University of Minnestoopid, I only went to a degree mill (any New Jersey Institute of Technology/Newark College of Engineering alum care to comment on that?). This fits perfect into the insular character of that state.
Hm... either it's for the children or they're afraid to lose control of the knowledge imparted to the people.
And really it's both.
As one Freeper observed: government schools are prisons for those that have committed the crime of being born.
Imagine the terror they'd be having if the courses were on the powers of the jury, particularly presentments.
But the government forcing you to give to something you despise is fair.
Minnesota eases restrictions on online education following Internet dust-up
backpedaling quick, they are...
Totally believable. If you want real education reform, step one is to eliminated the government control over education.
Why must education be regulated?
Hippies were always control freaks. Just leftist ones. That’s why they used to walk arount with Mao’s little red book.
Coursera’s a great program. Anyone who might be interested in learning something should check out what they’re offering and see if anything has appeal.
I’d like to see them prosecute someone for taking an on-line class. How is restricting information legal?
Control. You'll think how and about what we tell you.
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