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Virtual high school
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Published: October 20, 2009
It is an irony of these bad economic times that an educational success story has suddenly become a matter of concern.
Enrollment at North Carolina's online high school is surging. According to its administrators, more than 15,000 students are taking Internet courses through the school this semester. That compares with 8,800 who did so last spring.
The General Assembly and other leaders created the N.C. Virtual High School with dreams of just such a large enrollment. The school allows students statewide to take obscure or advanced courses that their schools might not otherwise offer. The virtual high school levels the educational playing field between students in affluent, high-population areas like Forsyth and those in rural, economically depressed counties.
For example, students can take the kind of Advanced Placement courses that their districts often cannot afford. Also, students can take courses in fields where there may not be a lot of demand even in the city districts: Mandarin Chinese and advanced European history, for example.
Some students are even taking college-level courses that earn them credit toward a degree.
But here's the bad news. Nothing is free, and the state has not budgeted for the school's rapid expansion. It has a $5.7 million annual budget, but that's not enough to pay for the growing demand.
The legislature asked the State Board of Education to find a way to pay for the high school. The board hasn't responded, yet, but one really bad idea has been floated: Make local districts pay for students they enroll.
That solution, however, would defeat the school's core benefit -- that it brings to poorer districts the very best courses that, previously, only affluent districts could afford.
For the past 20 years, North Carolina has been debating how best to deal with an economic and educational dilemma: The constitution demands that all children receive a sound, basic education. But, at the same time, there is an enormous disparity in the contributions that local taxpayers can make to the state's various school districts. The virtual high school is one of the best and most cost-effective methods of addressing that disparity.
Rather than push the high school's costs back down on local districts, the state should be finding ways to encourage even more students to take these courses, especially in areas where they are not otherwise offered.
For once, we have found a new educational program that works. The virtual high school is a success. This is no time to undercut it financially.
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