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71 online teachers will get RIF letters

May 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Dozens of teachers who work for the Steilacoom School District’ s online school are scheduled to receive layoff notices – possibly as early as today – while they wait for final budget action in Olympia that could determine the fate of their program.

Steilacoom’ s online academy, now in its seventh year, draws students from around the state and helped pioneer online learning in Washington. The model has gained a strong foothold; Tacoma started contracting for an Internet program this year. State officials estimate that between 1 and 2 percent of Washington’ s 1 million students took at least one online course during the 2009-10 school year.

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States leaving feds behind on school reforms

April 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Oklahoma has passed a broad school-choice program that gives tax breaks to businesses and individuals that donate to private-school scholarships. Students now enrolled in public schools can get scholarships worth up to 80 percent of the average per-child cost statewide.

Earlier this month, Arizona passed an education-savings program that allows the parents of disabled children to withdraw them from public school and put the money that would’ve been spent at those schools into tax-free bank accounts. It can then be used for private tutoring, virtual education, college tuition or other expenses.

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Accelerate Education Announces Next Generation of Online Courses, Credit Recovery and Blended Digital Curriculum to Schools

April 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Accelerate Education, a new provider of K-12 online courses, credit recovery and blended learning curriculum announces new options for virtual schools, credit recovery programs and schools offering supplemental digital curriculum in the classroom.

Accelerate Education now offers a broad and rich catalog of online courses, credit recovery and digital curriculum in grades Kindergarten through 12th for the 2011-2012 school year.

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Budgets take aim at online, alternative school programs

April 14, 2011 By 1 Comment

A deficit-busting move by state legislators in Olympia has advocates of alternative and online learning programs run by public schools crying foul, and fearful for students’ options.

The two-year budget plan passed by the House on Saturday strips $53 million from state basic education dollars that have flowed to pay for each student enrolled in a grades K-12 alternative program.

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Education Budget Cut Unconstitutional, Says Online Learning Coalition

April 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Washington Families for Online Learning, a non-profit organization of parents, teachers, and supporters of online learning, calls on the legislature to rethink its unconstitutional 20 percent budget cut to Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) programs. The proposed targeted reduction violates the constitutional mandate to provide education to all children in the state. It also shifts the duty to fund education to the school districts that offer ALE programs and fails to reduce state expenditures.

At the coalition’s request, Steven O’Ban of Ellis, Li, McKinstry, PLLC, reviewed the state’s basic laws finding the legislature’s 20 percent ALE funding cut is directly in opposition to specific state educational mandates. Thus the 20 percent ALE budget cut is unconstitutional.

Rich Dingle, president of the Washington Families for Online Learning, said, “Every child is important and every student deserves the right to learn in a manner that best suits their needs. Washington is progressive in many ways, yet it seems we’re willing to leave our children behind when it comes to their education. We felt it absolutely necessary to speak to a lawyer to help clarify the degree to which this funding cut breaks Washington state law in order to keep our public schools open. We are working diligently to ensure every student in this state receives a sound education with equitable BEA funding, as our state constitution provides for.”

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Thousands of Kids May Lose Innovative Public School Option

April 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

According to the Washington Virtual Academies (WAVA), which operate online public school programs in three school districts in Washington, the cost per student for the program is over $5,900 per student.  Also more than the current amount of FTE received per pupil.  Then to cut an additional 20 percent; this is potentially devastating to a district’s ability to provide innovative, individualized online programs to students statewide.

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Virtual schools teaching states valuable lessons

March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many states are increasingly learning the same lesson. 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,” said 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.

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State budget holes could hit close to home

March 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“The State Parks fee of $30 (per year) is one of the places we can increase revenues, but that won’t be a large gain in the overall budget picture. Naselle Youth Camp is in good shape and will be funded in the short-term, but don’t be surprised if JRA (Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration) doesn’t continue to change to a community-based model instead of larger institutions like NYC in the next three or four years,” Takko said.

“We began preparing for this over a year and a half ago. Both teachers and classified unions have worked with the school district to help prevent staff reductions through contract negotiations. Our staff understands the economic crisis the State is facing and are supportive of administrative and school board decisions impacting district finances,” Naselle Superintendent Rick Pass said.

“Fortunately for Naselle, we have entered into an agreement with Columbia Virtual Academy to add 270 home school students beginning next fall. This will help negate the reduction from the state and federal budget allocations,” Pass said. “Boyd (Keyser, Ocean Beach Superintendent) and met Friday (March 19) at Vancouver ESD to join a discussion on how to reduce special education cooperative costs by up to $1 million.”

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Virtual education boom hits the states

March 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON — A few years ago, when he was governor of West Virginia, Bob Wise attended a graduation ceremony at Pickens High School in Randolph County, a tiny school on top of a mountain where the graduating class consisted of only two students. As he was leaving, he asked the principal how the school was able to attract foreign language teachers.

“He laughed and said, ‘We have one of the best Spanish instructors in the country.’ And I said, ‘How could that be possible here on this mountain?’ And he pointed to a satellite dish and he said, ‘She comes in every day at 10 o’clock from San Antonio, Texas.’

“That’s when I learned the power of distance learning,” says Wise, now the president of the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Many states are increasingly learning the same lesson. 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.

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Jeanne Allen: Innovation Must Begin in America’s Schools

January 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“Charter schools, virtual education and school choice options such as the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program are true innovators when it comes to the education of our country’s children. They already allow schools and school districts to reinvent the way families identify the best school environment for their children, free from the restrictive operational structure of conventional public schools.

“These schools are able to implement longer school days and school years, more time on task in the classroom, personalized curriculum options and a singular focus on our kids, rather than the adults who have become the greatest special interest in the education of America’s children.

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