A National K-12 Virtual School? Not Likely.
One of the big recommendations from “Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education,” the new Brookings Institution report, is to help establish national virtual schools:
To support the development of that sector of schooling, we recommend that Congress authorize the establishment of accrediting bodies for online K-12 education, incentivize states to participate in these accrediting efforts, and extend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provisions for school choice for students in low performing Title I schools to virtual schools. Thus students in persistently low performing schools would be able to avail themselves of accredited virtual education at the district’s expense.
Not Gonna Happen.
Think supplemental education was controversial? There is no way that Congress is going to pass what amounts to a national voucher program, where money from Johnny’s local district goes directly to Kaplan Online. More importantly, Title I deals mainly with elementary and middle schools, where there almost certainly needs to be ongoing adult supervision. Thus, most full-time virtual schools at this age level require significant parental involvement–something unavailable for many of our most disadvantaged students during the working hours. Without strong student supports and local, on-the-ground partnerships and adults, it’s hard to see how this really works for but a few kids. And let’s not even get started on the many potential problems with a program modeled on higher education accreditation.
