I was reading a newspaper article this weekend about the Texas Virtual Academy, a charter school which is entirely online where kids K-12 can earn their diploma from home, or at least advance to the next grade. Upon reading this I learned that for a student to attend a brick and mortar public school costs $8,700 per student per year. For the same child to attend a private charter academy, such as this online school it only costs taxpayers $4,800 per student per year. I’m not much of a mathematician but that is a 45% cut in costs to Texas taxpayers to educate that child. Remember that not all charter schools are online either, in fact this is a rarity. It makes me as a taxpayer almost want to demand that we privatize schools in Texas as the lion’s share of my $3,500+ per year that I pay in property taxes (non-tax deductible by the way) goes towards public education. It’s ridiculous.
There are some concerns however about the Virtual Academy. First is that the students are scoring lower on mandatory standardized tests. Personally I think this is a cop out for 2 reasons. First is that this particular charter school accepts those children who have learning disabilities. Second I know from my personal experience in public high school that the teachers as well as the school teach the test as opposed to what I am sure the original curriculum is reported as. Remember, what is said in the classroom is a whole lot harder to account for than what is said online. I remember spending no less than 6 weeks preparing for our standardized TAAS tests and the school was trying to get higher marks on the test in order to be rated as a better school. Now with this George W. Bush idea that well performing schools get more money, well you can only imagine what goes on behind closed doors. Charter schools, especially those online are under much, much more scrutiny and just one major scandal could wreck the system for everyone.
The second concern is that these students who learn online may lack necessary social skills. I can see this somewhat however you still have little league baseball, football, neighborhood friends, heck if it’s that big of a concern start a charter school where you do all your required homework and coursework online and open the school facility for a split AM/PM groups to come for physical education and tutoring services. I know, I’m a genius right?
Either way through online correspondence what you may find happening that is not readily quantifiable is that you end up with a student who is an independent learner, familiar and comfortable using technology, with a high level of reading comprehension and better than average written communication skills because all of these will be used extensively in order to get good grades online. These sound like vital real world skills to me. I’m glad that someone in Texas is thinking outside of the box for once when it comes to education.
I’ll bet the teacher’s union will be pissed.
Check out more at: http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/540790.html