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Published Sunday, July 25, 2010 in Local

Georgia working to get more virtual schools

By Winston Skinner

The Newnan Times-Herald

Georgia's only statewide virtual school continues to be Georgia Cyber Academy -- which is affiliated with the local Odyssey School -- but state officials are working with national computer-based schools in an effort to bring more of them to Georgia.

Officials with the Georgia Charter Schools Commission are in talks with two cyber high schools that want to open in Georgia but say they need more state funding. The schools are Kaplan Academy of Georgia and Provost Academy Georgia.

In June, the commission set the funding formula for cyber charters at about $3,500 a student. That amount is less than at a traditional campus, and the schools say that funding level would not provide students with a quality education.

Supporters say equal funding is necessary for computers, pay for teachers and electives like music and art. The GCSC plans to revisit its funding discussion on Aug. 19, according to Associated Press.

Provost and Kaplan are major players statewide in the charter school cyber academy movement. Kaplan Virtual Education -- based in Hollywood, Fla. -- is a division of The Washington Post Company. Provost Academy is affiliated with Edison Learning, Inc. in New York City.

Georgia Cyber Academy was known as Georgia Virtual Academy until recently. When GCA was getting started several years ago, the school's leaders formed a partnership with Odyssey School. Odyssey was the first standalone charter school to get a charter from the Georgia Board of Education. Odyssey School is currently in a former plant building in Shenandoah Industrial Park.

By starting under Odyssey's charter, GCA avoided having to go through a lengthy charter process. Odyssey gets some funding that helps with the local school's program.

For Odyssey, the concept offered the opportunity to generate funds to pay for teacher's assistants and other needs. The "small oversight fee ... enables us to do some things we wouldn't be able to do" otherwise, Andy Geeter, school director at Odyssey, said in a 2009 interview.

On Friday, Geeter said the state considers Odyssey and GCA as one entity for budget and testing purposes.

"We consider ourselves as two separate schools," Geeter stated. He noted GCA and Odyssey have separate faculties, heads of school and curriculum. Odyssey's facility is located on St. John Circle in the Shenandoah Industrial Park, while GCA operates from offices in Riverdale.

Geeter said Georgia Virtual School, a program of the Georgia Department of Education, offers some on-line learning opportunities for students on a course-by-course basis. GCA is, however, the only full scale school offering cyber learning for students in kindergarten through eighth grade in all 163 school systems in the state. GCA served some 6,000 students last year.

Provost had planned to enroll 800 high school students, while Kaplan was aiming for an enrollment of 460.

Michael Melnick, a founding board member at Provost Academy, told Associated Press that the charter school commission's mid-August review of the decision on funding likely means any change would come too late for Provost to offer fall classes for the 2010-2011 school term.

A page on the Provost Academy Georgia Web site indicated Provost would have been "the state's first fully online public charter high school" but announced registration was delayed because the funding situation meant Provost "would not be able to replicate the quality online education model that has already shown success."

Mike Klein, an editor with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, wrote an opinion piece on the charter funding issue that was released by GPPF, a Georgia think tank, on July 13. Klein described the withdrawal of Kaplan and Provost as a "gut punch for advocates of online education in Georgia."

He quoted Michael Serpe, a spokesman for Edison, as saying, "It's very simple. Based on our original application, per-pupil funding is dramatically lower than what we originally expected even when our application went in over one year ago."

"The withdrawals are a two-fold shock to the system. It immediately reduces online school options for Georgia high schoolers. It also sends a message to other companies that working with Georgia is at your own peril until the state can figure out its funding models," Klein wrote.

According to Klein, Matt Arkin, GCA's head of school at Georgia Cyber, GCA is seeking permission "to open a ninth grade this August" that would enroll 600 students.

Klein also quoted statistics showing much higher payments per pupil at virtual schools in other states -- $5,000-$7,500 in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin -- and a much as $8,100 in Pennsylvania.

"South Carolina is at the low end, at about $3,300 per pupil," Klein wrote. According to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, average for funding of virtual charters across the nation is around $6,500 per student.