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Cyber schooling grows statewide
March 20, 2009
GREENVILLE - SPARTANBURG - ANDERSON
By Anna B. Mitchell, staff writer
Online education is in demand in South Carolina...
Three schools opened online campuses this fall with 2,200 students - and almost half as many more were placed on waiting lists to get in. This coming fall, another two online campuses will be opening with spaces available for another 1,276 students.
The schools, which are free and are part of the state's public school system, were made possible through the creation in 2005 of a statewide charter school district. State-certified teachers run online classrooms, and students earn a state-issued high-school diploma identical to what they'd earn at any other public school in the state.
The South Carolina Public Charter School District has its own superintendent - Ted Daniels - and a board of directors that meets monthly. Its purpose, Daniels said, is to enable the creation of innovative, efficient learning environments.
And because the state's charter school district is, by definition, statewide, it is the only agency able logistically to authorize Web-based schools - schools that can enroll kids from anywhere, at least within state lines.
"We are autonomous from local school departments," Daniels said. "This gives us the freedom to do something different. You won't get at 'different' by doing the same thing."
Students enroll online for a number of reasons, said Ray Rozycki, chief academic officer for Provost Systems. His company is bringing the online Provost Academy to South Carolina this coming fall.
"You'd be amazed. If you name a reason, there's a student out there who fits it," Rozycki said. "There are a lot of issues with regards to student safety, especially in urban areas. There has been a lot of success for autistic students. It gives them an opportunity to be in a community without stress. Then there's everything from a young mother wanting success."
Daniels said online schools offer the flexibility and portability that young artists and athletes need when they are competing or performing on the road. Online schools also offer a rigorous education to students who may be living in remote corners of the state.
Daniels' office provides technical assistance on state and federal sources of funding. Before he came to South Carolina, he'd served as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools through the summer of 2008. Daniels' wife is also an online teacher.
"I know the issues form across the breakfast table," Daniels said. "We have a huge server in the living room that makes noise at night."
The Pennsylvania system has 11 so-called "cyber schools" with an enrollment of 24,000 students - the largest in the country. As in South Carolina, the various Pennsylvania schools serve different ages, have different curricula and target a variety of student needs - from at-risk youth (which South Carolina's Insight Academy targets) to college preparatory kids (targeted by Provost Academy).
"They all have different approaches," Daniels said.
For the time being, the one thing all the schools have in common is their state financial allocation - which at $3,000 per student is less than a third of what is spent on students at regular public schools in South Carolina. Startup funding from the federal government will keep these schools going their first couple of years, Daniels said, but more money eventually will need to come from the state.
Unlike schools controlled or chartered at the local district level, these schools do not receive any funding from the penny sales tax that replaced the property tax for school operations two years ago.
"It's not like it's free," Daniels said of cyber schooling. "There is staff, and technical costs are huge. There are just different costs in a brick-and-mortar school."
Provost Academy, for instance, provides students with a computer, printer and a $20 stipend for high-speed Internet access - in addition to staff that grade papers, chart online with students and track their academic progress.
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