Education Law

With school budgets tight, virtual education is on the rise

Stateline.org reported recently on the boom in virtual education and notes:

A combination of higher proficiency standards and tighter budgets are prompting school officials to look more closely than ever at online education. In recent years, several states have put forward plans to expand the reach of virtual schools. Most prominent is Idaho, where state Superintendent Tom Luna wants to require students to take online courses in order to graduate.

“Budgets are being cut,” says Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. “We can’t do more with less by continuing to do the same thing we’ve always done.”

All but two states now offer online courses to at least some students. In most cases, online courses are blended with in-school courses. But 27 states allow students to attend virtual schools full time. Online courses allow students to work at their own pace, with advanced students moving through the curriculum quickly while others might get more of the attention they need from teachers.

Using the Internet allows poorer or more rural districts to have access to more specialized teachers without having to pay big incentives. And in some cases, it makes it possible for teachers to reach more students either in larger classrooms or at home, minimizing costs to school districts. An audit of Wisconsin’s virtual charter schools last year found the per-pupil costs of some of the schools were lower than those of traditional public schools, although they were higher in others because of high start-up costs.

How has your school district utilized virtual education?

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on March 15, 2011 (boomark / email).