I feel like I'm pretty passionate about education. I enjoyed my time in college and have continued to learn regularly by enrolling in courses from Coursera and Udacity. I work for a company (BookEducator) that is all about education and educational materials. I regularly correspond with academics who also are passionate about bringing material, knowledge, and experience to students across the world. Apparently some people think education shouldn't be as easy as opening up a web browser.
The state of Minnesota has informed Coursera that it must pay a registration fee to offer courses to residents of the state. The government is limiting opportunities for citizens? They don't want their citizens educated? This sounds familiar...
Governmental agencies and laws need to be flexible to accommodate for disruptive technologies and innovations. Businesses and individuals have to adapt; should not the government be the same way?
I hope that in the coming days or weeks I can post an update saying that the state has made an exception or updated the law reflecting new technologies, because this is ridiculous.
Details about this can be found here and here.