Julie Ball

ASH

ASHEVILLE – Beginning in 2015, Western North Carolina students could have the option to attend one of two virtual charter schools in the state — doing all their school work online at home instead of in a traditional classroom.

A provision in the newly adopted state budget requires the state Board of Education to authorize two virtual charter schools to begin enrolling students in August of next year.

The move could clear the way for for-profit companies, aligned with nonprofit charter boards, to begin offering online classes and collecting tax dollars.

But some have questioned the effectiveness of these schools, which pull funding from traditional public schools.

“I think a lot of folks are concerned about what’s going to happen in terms of the cost of these classes, if they are going to be successful for students and not a waste of taxpayers’ money,” said Yevonne Brannon, who chairs the board of directors for the nonprofit advocacy group Public Schools First.

But Bryan Setser, founding board chair and president of North Carolina Connections Academy, which wants to open a virtual charter school in the state, said the school just wants “a chance to compete against everybody else.”

“It’s just a way to do school differently, and if it works and we are competitive and above state averages, then we’ve succeeded. And if we do it for two or three years, and we’re not meeting the needs of students, then we’ll certainly re-evaluate that,” Setser said.

Virtual schools

Some virtual schools have struggled.

In July, the Tennessee Department of Education took steps to close the Tennessee Virtual Academy, citing poor performance of its students. A letter to Union County (Tenn.) Schools cited low student growth and a high attrition rate among students. The letter said the school would close at the end of the upcoming school year unless performance improved.

“TNVA has been unsuccessful in its attempts to provide a high quality education to the overwhelming majority of its students and, in fact, has performed significantly below expectations,” the letter from Kevin Huffman, Tennessee education commissioner, stated.

The school “remained in the bottom 2 percent of schools in the state in growth during the 2013-14 school year,” according to the letter.

Union County schools contracted with K12 Inc., a for-profit company, to operate the Tennessee Virtual Academy. K12 operates online schools in a number of states.

The company reported revenue of nearly $920 million at the end of the 2014 fiscal year, according to a news release on the company website.

Jeff Kwitowski, spokesman for K12, said typically the longer students are enrolled in an online school, the better they do.

Kwitowski said many students choose an online school “because where they were was not working and they had fallen behind.”

“So a lot of times you have students who are entering into online school programs, sometimes in middle school and high school grades, who are multiple grade levels behind or deficient in their credits so it takes a while to catch up,” he said.

A nonprofit board is seeking to bring K12 online programs into North Carolina for a virtual charter school. NC Learns wants to contract with the company to operate the North Carolina Virtual Academy. The group has been involved in a lawsuit with the state Board of Education over its application.

The state board will have to decide which two virtual charters to approve for the pilot program. Under a tentative schedule, the board could approve the schools in January.

“There’s going to be an application. There’s probably going to be an interview process, as well as some due diligence looking at other areas,” said Joel Medley, director of the state Office of Charter Schools.

Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that have more flexibility than traditional public schools.

The language in the state budget creates the four-year pilot program with two virtual charter schools to serve students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The schools can have as many as 1,500 students in the first year and can grow to up to 2,592 in the fourth year.

At least 90 percent of the teachers must reside in the state, and teaching staff must have state certification. The ratio of students to teachers would be one teacher for 50 students in kindergarten through eighth grades and one teacher to 150 students in ninth through 12th grade classes.

“I think this is an enormously bad idea, and one made considerably worse by the legislature not following the recommendations of the state Board of Education,” said Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland.

The state Board of Education had studied the issue and offered a series of recommendations for lawmakers.

Glazier said the state board recommended more limits on the size of the schools and classes, more accountability, more transparency and limits on the corporate influence on the boards of the virtual schools.

“I have real concern about a statewide virtual charter school model, but I think there is a time and a place where we need to be piloting that concept,” he said. “But given the experiences of many other states, it really has to be a very controlled and deliberate pilot. And the legislation we passed is the exact opposite. It creates very little control, and very little transparency, all of those things which have gotten the virtuals in trouble everywhere else.”

Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, said he expects the state board to put in place “quality measures” for these schools. He backed the creation of the virtual charter school pilot program, among other recently approved education programs.

“I support all these options so that every student will have the opportunity to attend the school of his/her choice regardless of ZIP code or the income of their parents,” he said. “With the virtual charter school pilot and all charters, I support the expansion of high quality charter schools.”

How they’re funded

The schools would be funded just like other charter schools. Funding will be based on the number of students, and the funding will come from the districts where the students live.

Under the state budget provision, the virtual charters receive state dollars minus low-wealth and supplemental funding that some counties receive. The virtual charters will also receive up to $790 per child in local dollars.

The local funding is one concern about virtual charter schools: The schools don’t have to pay for things like transportation and building maintenance, but they receive a portion of that funding.

Another issue is that many of the students who will use the virtual charter schools are home-schooled now and aren’t counted when it comes to school enrollment. Funding for schools in the state is based on the number of students or average daily membership.

“Those children are not counted in our ADM counts either at the local level or the state level. Thus you are going to end up taking the same amount of funding and spreading it across more children,” said Leanne Winner, director of governmental relations for the N.C. School Boards Association.

She said the association also has concerns about the academic performance of virtual schools. “The performance in other states has not been particularly strong,” she said.

The association, in a position paper, cited a 2011 study of Pennsylvania charter schools that showed virtual schools performed “significantly worse” than traditional public schools.

Setser said poor performing virtual schools should be shut down.

“Can we look at public schools across North Carolina that are not making the grade? Can we look at public schools in inner cities that are not making the grade?,” he said. “You have great charters. You have charters that are still maturing and working on their results, and then you have poor performing charters, and poor performing charters should be shut down. That doesn’t help kids or families.”

North Carolina Connections Academy is awaiting approval from the state Board of Education for its application. The school was recommended for approval by the N.C. Charter School Advisory Board earlier this year.

It would contract with Connections Education, which operates virtual charter schools in 26 states, Setser said.

“We will reach out directly to them to contract for their services. Basically, they will provide teachers, learning coaches, technology, a host of things that the kids need,” Setser said. “And then a day in the life of a Connections Academy student will be run from our statewide center, most likely in Durham. And we will have teachers on call there to provide student support services.”

Connections is part of Pearson, a for-profit education services company.

“But Pearson, from an educational standpoint and a software standpoint, does not manage day-to-day operations for Connections,” Setser said. “Connections has its own technology, its own operational structure.”

Setser said the virtual charter school is open to being a part of the state pilot program or moving ahead with the current charter application process.

He said these online schools are needed for several reasons.

Traditional school is “not a fit for everybody” and in some places, students can’t access all the classes they might want.

“We’ve got families who can’t get access to a quality education where they are,” he said. “They can’t access an AP physics teacher. They can’t compete for college entrance because their area of North Carolina cannot attract those teachers.”

But Brannon said there are too many questions.

“I think the cyber schools should have the same rigorous accreditation process that a traditional school does if it’s going to be supported with taxpayer dollars,” she said.

Virtual charter schools

Here are some highlights of the pilot program:

• The state board will establish a pilot program with two virtual charter schools for children in kindergarten through 12th grade.

• Student enrollment could be a maximum of 1,500 students in the first year and then can increase by 20 percent each year to up to 2,592.

• The maximum ratio of teacher to students for K-8 is one to 50. The maximum for ninth through 12 grades is one to 150.

• The school must have a withdrawal rate below 25 percent.