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A growing trend in K-12 education is the development of the cyberschool, a full time online learning program and the virtual school, a supplementary online learning program. These campuses replace brick and mortar classrooms with evolving practices of interactive technology. The greatest obstacle to the development of online learning is finding agreement on funding formulas. The purpose of this study was to examine per pupil costs for operating cyberschools and virtual schools and to compare those costs with traditional brick and mortar schools. The study found that in every state in fiscal year 2005 the mean full time equivalent per pupil expenditure for public school students was significantly greater than the per pupil expenditures in those cyberschools included in the study.
About the author
D.L. Bearden is a Texas based educator with interests in the Midwest, New England, Latin America, and the Mediterranean. He has experience and training in school leadership, and works as a consultant on developmental issues for charter schools, cyberschools, virtual schools/ worlds, e-Learning design, arts education, and educational technology.
