Virtual Schooling K-12 Becoming Mainstream

I think this is good news.  Even if one parent can’t stay home to homeschool, a student can still get his education with a virtual school.

From the AP here:

As a seventh-grader, Kelsey-Anne Hizer was getting mostly D’s and F’s and felt the teachers at her Ocala middle school were not giving her the help she needed. But after switching to a virtual school for eighth grade, Kelsey-Anne is receiving more individual attention and making A’s and B’s. She’s also enthusiastic about learning, even though she has never been in the same room as her teachers.
 
Virtual learning is becoming ubiquitous at colleges and universities but remains in its infancy at the elementary and secondary level, where skeptics have questioned its cost and effect on children’s socialization.

Estimates of elementary and secondary students taking virtual classes range from 500,000 to 1 million nationally compared to total public school enrollment of about 50 million.

Struggling students such as Kelsey-Anne, who suffers from attention deficit disorder, can take more time to finish courses while those who are gifted can go at a faster speed.

“There is something to be said for having kids in a social situation learning how to interact in society,” said state Rep. Shelley Vana. “I don’t think you get that if you’re at home.”

But virtual students get a different kind of social experience that is just as valuable, said Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning in Vienna, Va.

“We should socialize them for the world that they live in,” she said, suggesting that people spend much of their time interacting via computer these days.

Why did this article have to quote a state representative as a so-called expert on socialization of school children?  They couldn’t find an education expert?  Oh, yeah, they quoted her because she is a feminist and a shill for the teachers unions.

This is Allenna Ward, a 23 year old middle school teacher from South Carolina.

When she was asked why she raped five boys she was teaching, she responded “I was only trying to socialize them.”