One of two online public charter schools that offer statewide enrollment will ask permission from the state to double the size of its virtual classrooms after 1,900 students applied for the school’s 600 spots.
According to The Monroe News Star, Louisiana Connections Academy, a state-approved online virtual charter school, has seen “overwhelming” interest from parents seeking alternative choices to traditional public schools.
Students from across the state who enroll in the Connections Academy will take traditional school courses through home computers, web conferencing, e-mail and other tools beginning in the fall. In its original charter application to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the online school asked to accept 500 students. That number was increased to 600 without amending the charter, but school officials plan to ask BESE for 600 more slots when the state’s top school board meets in August.
The state’s other virtual charter school, Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy, has a 1,320-student capacity and 1,400 applicants, 80 percent of which have already been approved for enrollment:
Jeff Kwitowski, spokesman for LVCA, said the high interest in virtual education is related to the parents’ desire for choice in public education. “Virtual charter schools are a public education choice available to any student in the state regardless of geographic location or socio-economic status,” he said. “With virtual schools, your public school is not determined by where you live. We can deliver school to any student based on their academic need with a highly individualized approach to learning.”
Wood is careful to say that the virtual charter schools are not in competition with traditional brick and mortar public schools but offer another avenue for Louisiana’s students to seek an education at a high level.
“The virtual learning opportunity provides a new learning environment and new opportunities to learn at a different pace,” [Virtual Charter Academy Regional Vice President Karen Ghidotti said. “Students are not structured by the bells of a traditional brick and mortar classroom. The virtual school provides students the opportunity to spend more time in one class if needed and structure their day to fit their needs.”
Enrollment is still going on at both schools. Find more info on Louisiana Connections Academy and Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy by visiting their websites.
Read more here.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
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MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
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