Just as there are a wide variety of virtual programs, the funding models of the programs vary greatly as well. As virtual programs are still relatively new, and many cases, the funding methods are still under construction. Especially in the public arena, district, or state wide, the funding can become complicated trying to fit a new form of education with different financial implications. Under the budget models of a, of traditional programs. Virtual programs have potential to offer a more efficient and cost effective means, excuse me, of providing education but sometimes the potential is not achieved when trying to fit funding into a traditional mold. There is room for growth and further advancements as virtual programs continue to expand. This week you have a 38 page document I'd like you to review on cost and funding of virtual schooling. You can access and view the PDF document on the course resource page. Look for week four lesson one. And, I'd like you to take a look at that document first and then take a look at this lesson video. So again, pause the video here please, and go to the course resource page, and look at the downloaded movie 20/20 Cost and Funding of Virtual Schools. And you can go through that article before you come back and resume this video. I'll review some key points from the article and start your thinking about how school funding affects the virtual teacher, and vice versa. [BLANK_AUDIO] Okay, hope you took a chance to took some time to peruse that large document and learned some things from it. In week one, we learned these six categories of online programs according to keeping the pace. Let's now consider funding sources of each, including state appropriation, funding formula tied to full time enrolment or FTE. Public school funding, course fees, no state rule or a combination approach. So, single district. Single district programs serve students who reside within the district that is providing the online courses. These programs are funded primarily by the district out of public funds intermingled between the online program and the rest of the district. In most cases, there's no difference in funding between online students and students in the physical setting. Blended school. Fully blended schools are stand-alone schools and most typically, are charter schools. Many fully blended schools across the country are charter schools started by education management organizations. Or charter management organizations. Some blended schools are non-charter district schools that take a whole school blended approach to instruction. The blended schools funding would be based on public funds according to the charter school laws in the state for district funding. Multi-district online schools. Serves students full time from, across multiple districts, and often an entire state. These schools are often, but not always charter schools. In full time online schools, students enrol and earn credit and diplomas issued by the online school. National educational management organizations, EMOs, are a key part of the full time online school landscape. Because they operate the schools that collectively make up more than perhaps seventy five percent of the total enrollment in all fulltime schools. The EMOs are a mix of companies that started as an online school providers like K-12 and Connection Academy insight schools. In companies that were involved in education and have recently began offering online schools like Edison and Kaplan. Full-time multi-district online schools funding is often provided via state public education funds that follow the student, though some are funded through appropriations. Fees or grants. Exceptions to this occur in some states. For example in Colorado. Colorado has established funding levels for online students that are different than funding for students in physical schools. Some of the blended schools are charter schools started by these larger education. Management organizations, state supported online, state supported supplemental options funding keeping the phase defined state virtual schools as programs created by a legislation or by a state level agency. And, or administrated by a state education agency, or funded by a state appropriation or grant for the purpose of providing online learning opportunities across the state. They may also receive federal or private foundation grants and often charge course fees to students or their districts to help cover costs. Primarily as a result of the funding methods in each state, state virtual schools continue to divide into two different groups. Those that are large and growing and those that are small and either shrinking or at best maintaining the enrolment numbers. Another way states are offering supplemental options to students state wide is through state supported course choice programs. Which are designed to allow students to choose the course and provider that best meets their needs. Keeping pace defines a course choice program as one in which students can choose to take a course from one of multiple providers. A district cannot deny a student's request to enroll in an out of district course, and funding follows the student at the course level. Consortium. Many districts are increasingly recognizing that they do not have the resources to invest in an online school or courses on their own. But they still want to offer online options to their students. Some of these districts are creating consortia to create online schools or courses with the costs and benefits spread among member districts. These programs may be run by a group of districts. By a non-profit organization that works with schools or by an intermediate education agency. They're usually funded by member schools or by course fees and may be supplemental, fully online, blended, or some combination of program types. In most cases the consortium works across, a part or all of a state. Although the VHS collaborative operates in 31 states and internationally. Some consortium programs such as VHS and the Wisconsin East School Network. Have been operating for many years while others have started recently such as a group of districts working together in Illinois. And finally, private or independent schools. Public catered toward education has generally been slower than post secondary institutions, to embrace online and blended learning. In addition, different states and regions of the country have tended to adopt online and blended learning faster than others. With the south and west generally moving more quickly into online learning than the middle Atlantic and New England states. Private schools appear generally to have been slower to adopt than many public schools with interest and adoptions now expanding rapidly. But from a base that is perhaps 5 years behind the public sector. Private or independent virtual schooling is funded based on course fees. Online courses tend to have the same price per unit as face to face courses at a college or university, however additional fees may not be incurred like parking. Since virtual programs vary across the United States, I thought it would be informative to look specifically at how California's K-thru-12 virtual programs are funded. California online programs are governed by one of two sets of laws. Independent study regulations for all non-classroom based instruction and charter school laws. Some of the charter school laws are specific to online programs like SB 740, that will be mentioned shortly, and others that are not. Online charter schools are governed by charter school law, and the independent study provision. Online curriculum may be presented either in a classroom setting or through independent study. The appropriate method of attendance accounting for such classes is dependent upon the instructional setting utilized. For online courses in a classroom setting. More students are under the immediate supervision of a teacher. Regular average daily attendance or ADA funding was applied through the provision of AB294.66. That law ended in 2007 though, and no new law has passed in its place. For online courses not offered in the classroom setting, independent study attendance counting applies. Online character schools are governed in part. By provisions of SB 740 passed in 2001, which require a charter school to spend 80% or more of total revenues on instruction. And spend 40% or more of public revenues on certificated staff salaries and benefits. According to the publication you read at the start of this lesson, there are five broad categories of costs for online programs, and they are. Management, instruction, course development, technology setup, and technology personnel. The cost of operating online programs varies based on the following factors. Program governance, teacher salaries, student-teacher ratio, student population, degree of home based versus on-site computing, course completion rates. Quality assurance research, program size and growth. The cost of online learning alone and in comparison to the cost of traditional classrooms has recently been the focus of several studies according to the iNacol Study by Watson in 2007. Some preliminary indicators suggest that the cost of online courses is just about the same as traditional classroom classes. Especially within the online programs that are relatively new and small. Here are some specific studies that indicate this trend published by Evergreen Consulting Associates. The Ohio Legislator has, Ohio Legislature has studies the cost of its e-community schools which are online charter schools. The legislative committee on education oversight looked at five state wide online schools. And found that they spent 500, 30, 382 thousand per student, compared to 7,452 for students in brick and mortar charter schools, and 8,437 dollars for students in traditional non-charter schools. Technology made up 28% of the spending. Followed by instruction at 23%, administration at 16% and curriculum at 9%. The report concluded that these costs are, quote, reasonable. An independent study commissioned by the Bell South Foundation, done by the. School finance consulting firm Augenblick, Palaich and Associates APA, found that the operating costs of online programs are about the same as the operating costs of a regular brick and mortar school. The Southern Regional Educational Board, SREB. Studied cost of state led supplemental online programs and estimated that a small program with 1,000 1 semester student enrolments would cost $1,500,000. While a larger program with 10,000 1 semester student enrolments would cost $6 million. While online programs may have some cost savings due to a lower need for physical classrooms and other facilities. These savings are offset by other needs. Online programs have higher needs for hardware, software and connectivity for classes. Ongoing technical support, comprehensive student support, course development or licensing. Shipping of materials and other costs, especially while a program is starting. Grants, donations, and fundraising are funding options also available to online schools. Schools can benefit from looking into options for grants and donations, and working hard to acquire additional funds can be very worthwhile. And especially important for new programs and where state funding is not sufficient. Lets talk about currents. According to Inacles website to help start online programs in wide range of grants maybe available due to the start up phase. These grants maybe from public or from private sources. Be small and local in scope, or be large national programs. Grants can cover the costs of anything from hardware to courseware to staffing. Grant availability depends on many factors and needs and may include fund awards based on target student population. A demographic characteristic or location, population density or location of the students to be served, use of a particular brand of hardware or software. And if it's an approach to teaching and learning, focus on a particular content area, focus on a particular type of course. Like AP, or International Baccalaureate, and or focus on a particular type of school, Charter, private, or hybrid. Numerous grant notification services and websites are available that provide updated information on available grants. Some of these services are fee based, and Inac, iNickel recommends you shop carefully. Some resources are provided and but not endorsed by iNickel are, on the, the course resource page. Let's talk about donations. Donations like grants can come in all shapes and sizes and from a wide variety of sources. Small and large, restricted and unrestricted, cash and in kind donation can all be part of the funding puzzle, puzzle. And fundraising. Online programs may be able to raise additional funds by participating in traditional fundraising activities or programs. Collecting Box Tops of Education and signing up for office supply store programs can help the budget. The role of the virtual teacher is broken down into the following categories according to iNickel 2010. Guiding and individualizing learning. Communication, assessing, grading and promoting, and developing the online course content and structure. School funding directly affects these aspects of the teachers role. Teachers should be aware of funding laws to be able to communicate and advocate for themselves and their students. The availability of technology, materials, and finances for professional development defend, depend on the program's funds. Teachers can directly help the school funding through grants and fundraising. Teachers should be aware of the cost of there programs to students, because it may affect enrolment numbers. Schools with a high tuition or course fees may not be accessible to as wide a variety of and range of students. There are many direct and indirect ways funding can affect the virtual teacher. I have stated some parts of the virtual teacher's role in school funding but you will continue to think about this and discuss it further in our discussion forum this week
