Different rules in New Jersey don't require public funding of cyber schools

Sunday, February 28, 2010
By Sara Satullo AND DOUGLAS B. BRILL
The Express-Times

Students in New Jersey can't attend a full-time cyber school financed with taxpayer money as they can in Pennsylvania.

But a growing number of Garden State schools have turned to the Internet to improve learning.

More than 80,000 students in New Jersey took part in an online course or another type of cyber instruction during the 2008-09 school year, according to the state Department of Education. That's twice as many as had in the previous school year.

"A lot of the kids said to me it has woken them up to learning time management and organizational skills," said Bob Redmon, who oversees a Virtual High School program in the Hackettstown School District. "They like being able to take unique courses To be in a global classroom and have that globalization of a curriculum is something that is very difficult for us to do here."

The program is offered each semester to 25 students who can choose from 135 courses, some of which the district couldn't otherwise afford or provide.

Typically, Virtual High School charges a district about $15,000 to be a full member school with 40 seats, Redmon said. Hackettstown is paying $6,500 this year because a district teacher is certified and offering courses through the program.

An increasing number of Pennsylvania school districts also offer online instruction, including the Bangor Area School District, and more are considering making it an option for students.

The Saucon Valley School District is weighing using Virtual High School as a supplement to traditional instruction, or offering the more comprehensive cyber learning options available to Bangor students.

Pennsylvania law requires districts to pay for students who want to attend a cyber charter school instead of their local school district.

Northampton County school districts expected to pay cyber schools an estimated $4.96 million to educate 587 students this school year.

New Jersey has no such funding arrangement, said Larry Cocco of the Department of Education's Office of Standards.

He said cyber schools currently are required to serve only students in their geographic area. And how much to spend on online instruction is entirely up to individual school districts.

Gov. Chris Christie's administration has not yet addressed cyber school regulations, Cocco said.

But educators expect students soon will be required to take at least one online course per year, according to Redmon.