Virtual savings? Online courses bring better access but little impact on the bottom line - Virtual High School

School Administrator, April, 2004 by Brett Schaeffer

"As a small school district we're always on the edge of consolidation," says Kevin Kelleher, assistant director of the academy. He is a K12 employee but works out of the school district headquarters.

The partnership between the district and K12, Kelleher says, is an innovative solution to that common problem facing small districts because it brings in students who may otherwise opt out of public school. Plus, he says, operating the academy puts the district at the leading edge of education's latest trend.

Legal Action

In recent months, however, the academy has garnered attention in a way Kelleher hadn't imagined.

The online course offerings in Houston are at the center of an October 2003 lawsuit filed by Education Minnesota, the state's largest teachers' union, against the state department of education. The union claims the state agency improperly approved Minnesota Virtual Academy to receive public funding because it relies on parents to deliver the instruction, not licensed teachers, as state law requires.

"State law specifically says that instruction online must be delivered by licensed teachers," says Harley Ogata, Education Minnesota's general counsel. "The lawsuit aims to ensure that teaching and learning is conducted by licensed teachers as opposed to a parent or surrogate."

The teachers' union has approved more than a dozen other online learning programs, but "Houston is the only one we're aware of at this point where the instruction is being done in the home by a parent or surrogate," Ogata says. "Essentially, we're funding home-schooling."

Kelleher has a different take. "We believe, and the law states, that if online learning is delivered by computer and has certified teachers conducting individual assessments and tutoring," then it complies with the law, he contends.

Minnesota law requires a student be enrolled in a public school during the prior school year to be eligible to take online courses through the academy.

"The irony," says Kelleher, "is that of the teachers we have, many are union teachers."

Ogata says the key issue in the debate is sometimes overlooked. "Consider a regular brick-and-mortar classroom, and in that classroom who is there giving that instruction?" he asks rhetorically. "It would be a teacher, and it's really no different in how that learning should be conducted online."

Two school districts, Hopkins and Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, have joined the teachers' union as plaintiffs, claiming their online programs have been hurt because of the funding Houston receives for its program.

In the online programs run by the Hopkins and Burnsville districts, instruction is led by a licensed Minnesota teacher. Both programs, unlike the one in Houston, offer courses to secondary school students.

The Houston district also operates the Minnesota Center for Online Learning, which offers individual courses for high school students. For instance, if a student is short of a math credit for graduation, he or she could make that class up online.

Defining Instruction