The Policy Foundation has advanced Arkansas virtual education for nearly a decade.

Virtual School Application and Charter Expansion (2002-11)

The Foundation submitted an application to establish an Arkansas virtual school for K-12 students in 2002. The application was submitted after discussions with education officials. The application was withdrawn following further discussions. The state Department of Education subsequently submitted an application for a Virtual Academy, and it was approved by the U.S. Department of Education. The Foundation observed "the Virtual Academy is one means to expand the number of charter schools in Arkansas." The school was restructured mid-decade, and the Arkansas Virtual Academy was opened in 2007. The Virtual Academy is unique in Arkansas, and served 500 kindergarten-thru-8th grade students in school year 2010-11. The school had a statewide waiting list of 932 students in school year 2009-10 (see Appendix).

The Foundation advanced the idea that charter schools should be expanded in Arkansas. Charters were expanded in 2005, 2007 and 2011. The Arkansas Virtual Academy is structured as a charter school.

Clinton Center Conference (2010)

The Foundation sponsored a one-day forum on virtual education in May 2010 at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. The forum brought together a diverse group of policymakers from across the traditional policy spectrum to discuss virtual education as a reform.

Participants included former Democratic West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise and Susan Patrick, former director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. Wise is President of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington-based group that supports virtual education as an educational reform. Patrick is President/CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning in Vienna, VA.

Arkansas Virtual Academy board members, students and parents participated. Arkansas Commissioner of Education Dr. Tom Kimbrell, two state Board of Education members and community leaders also attended the forum. The Foundation published a report, The Information Economy in Arkansas: Obstacles and Opportunity to coincide with the 2010 event.

Obstacles to Virtual Education

The Foundation report linked reducing obstacles to virtual education in Arkansas with the opportunity of growth in jobs and higher income levels.

The report noted distance learning has been part of K-12 virtual education initiatives in Arkansas since the mid-1990s and a virtual school has been utilized since 2002. But the report identified serious obstacles to virtual education in Arkansas:

·K-8 enrollment is capped statewide at 500 students

·Children with medical conditions have inadequate access.

The report also noted that employment in Arkansas' private Information sector "has barely grown in a two-decade period." The sector is a proxy for knowledge-based industries, which Arkansas government has attempted to recruit in a high-visibility effort. The report noted:

The sector, despite adjusting for recession, has barely grown in a two-decade period. There were 17,200 Information sector employees in Arkansas in January 1990 when the employment time series began. The Information sector employed 17,800 in December 2007 at the start of the most recent recession. There were 15,400 Information sector employees in March 2010.

More than one year later (May 2011) there were 15,900 Information sector employees in Arkansas. Information employment was at lower levels in only 19 of 257 months dating to January 1990. These lower levels occurred after the Great Recession (December 2007 to June 2009). Arkansas Information employment is lower than it was at the end of the Great Recession (16,500).

Another private sector that includes jobs requiring knowledge-based skills more than doubled in the same period. Employment in Professional and Business Services (seasonally-adjusted) increased from 55,000 (January 1990) to 121,900 (May 2011), and from 53,600 to 121, 500 (not seasonally adjusted), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Arkansas officials should be wary of creating a virtual world that is at odds with the global economy's reality of increased competition. The obstacles identified at the time of the Clinton Center forum remain in place and must be addressed. These obstacles are the virtual enrollment cap and the issue of access.

Other Obstacles to Virtual Education

The Digital Learning Council, a national group that seeks to move digital education beyond "a niche role" (Education Week, Aug. 18, 2010) was co-founded by Gov. Wise and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican. The Council includes government officials, business leaders and academics, and seeks to reduce other obstacles to virtual education.

The Foundation finds the issues of statewide student access, input-focused regulation, output-based regulation and opportunities for cost savings must be addressed to advance virtual education in Arkansas. These issues include:

·Statewide student access to credit recovery;

·Drop outs (through alternative schools);

·AP and other advanced courses;

·Home-bound (illness or otherwise) and home-schooled students;

·Unit recovery;

·Summer school;

·Disaster preparedness (H1N1 virus or other disasters);

·Tutoring.

Phase out input-focused regulation around the following criteria:

·Funding of seat time;

·Fixed student-teacher ratios;

·Geographic restrictions that limit teacher supply and student enrollment to local areas.

Output-based regulation that links funding to the ability of students to master or achieve proficiency in performance should be emphasized.

Opportunities for cost savings should be identified in these areas:

·Fund programs that work

·Eliminate or reduce transportation costs for students formerly without local access to online learning

·Move away from expensive textbooks

·Stop building large, inflexible school facilities

·Make professional development available to all teachers online

These additional obstacles to virtual education warrant the attention of Arkansas policymakers.

SAVINGS: The Arkansas Distance Learning Center

The Arkansas Distance Learning Center, operated by the state Department of Education illustrates the savings provided by virtual education.

The Maumelle-based Center was launched in the 2001-02 school year with 112 students. The Center's appropriation was $2.1 million in FY 2009-10 but declined to $1.8 million (2010-11) and will drop to $1.5 million (2011-12). The average number of students served by the Center in the last three years is 3,080.1 The peak, 3,157 students, was recorded in the 2009-10 school year. This represents less than one percent of statewide Arkansas K-12 enrollment.

Rules governing distance learning were developed by the state Department of Education in 2004. The purpose is "to assist school districts in scheduling distance learning courses, make distance learning available to every Arkansas student, and coordinate distance learning calendars of course providers." The Department is required to "work with Arkansas school districts and distance learning course providers to determine the best possible distance learning calendar(s) to meet" district's" scheduling needs.

The Distance Learning Consortium includes the Center and other providers. The Consortium's operating policies are meant to promote academic success, and include guidelines that address academic dishonesty; attendance; classroom discipline, environment and facilitation; communication; computer usage; drop/add procedures; educational materials; enrollment; grade reporting; inclement weather; maintenance of records; make-up policy; parental involvement; reporting; scheduling; school dismissal; special needs; technical difficulties; technology requirements; and testing.

Virtual education critics argue the process threatens rural Arkansas districts. PA 60 of 2003 requires consolidation or annexation of districts with enrollments of 350 students or less for two consecutive years. Yet only 20 percent of districts served by the Center (2010-11) had enrollments of 350-to-499 students. The highest enrollment percentage (42 percent) was in districts with 500-to-999 students. The remaining 38 percent were from districts with 1,000-to-2,499 students.
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