I commend last week's spotlight on Florida Virtual School (FLVS) and its 10th anniversary ("A happy anniversary," August 30, 2007). But your commentary confused two very different types of virtual schooling programs. And in your zeal to land a zinger on a union official, you missed the opportunity to focus on the real story--an innovative, growing public school program that is reshaping the traditional, polarized educational debates.
Your commentary confuses state-run supplemental virtual schools, like FLVS, with full-time "cyber" charter schools (such as the k-11 Florida Connections Academy, and the k-8 Florida Virtual Academy). Despite their growth and popularity, cyberschools are highly controversial--a result of their non-traditional approach to learning, their status as charter schools, the transfer of student funding away from traditional schools, and their enrollment of former home-school students. Many unions, especially state and local-level affiliates, have vehemently opposed cyberschools.
In contrast, the NEA (and Barbara Stein in particular), which your article portrayed as opposing virtual schooling and called "grumps," have actually been supportive of FLVS and many other supplemental, state-run virtual school programs. Your article confounds the ideological and political controversies that surround cyberschools with virtual schooling in general.
Not all innovative reforms require an ideological battle. Virtual schooling offers an opportunity to re-think conventional wisdom and re-draw the battle lines. Consider state-run FLVS: It operates inside the "public" system--with fully-certified teachers, union members, and support from both sides of the political aisle. It's also highly successful, entrepreneurial, and as you indicated, funded on a performance-based, demand-driven model.
You are right to commend FLVS's success. But the real challenge is whether the innovative practices found in programs like FLVS will not only continue, but also cause educators and policymakers to question and change key components of our traditional public system. Only then can we begin to reach virtual schooling's true potential for reform.
Bill Tucker
Chief Operating Officer, Education Sector
Bill Tucker's recent report on virtual schooling is available here.