Guest Commentary: The Fordham Institute on the 'Cost of Online Learning'

The Thomas Fordaham Institute is a nationally recognized organization that supports research, publications, and projects involving in elementary/secondary education reform.

Currently, it is sponsoring a series of reports on policy directions and guidelines for the virtual education movement.  So far, these papers have looked at quality control, the role of teachers and school finance. 

Now the institute has issued the much awaited report on the cost of online learning.

From the statehouse to the courthouse to the boardroom to the playground, this is going to get the virtual education community talking.  For years, online learning has been sold to lawmakers as a low-cost alternative to traditional bricks-and-mortar schools.

But virtual charter management companies--non-profits and for-profits--often say that states can't whack per pupil funding just because the kids aren't in a classroom. A quality education still demands a quality expenditures.

Last year Georgia went on a roller coaster ride over the per pupil expenditure for virtual charter schools. The aftershock of a Georgia Supreme Court decision on the matter is still be felt, and dealt with, in the Georgia Legislature.

With that as a back drop, the Fordham Institutes's paper, "The Cost of Online Learning" enters the scene. It says:

"In this paper, the Parthenon Group uses interviews with more than 50 vendors and online schooling experts to estimate today's average per-pupil cost for a variety of schooling models, traditional and online, and presents a nuanced analysis of the important variance in cost between different school designs. These ranges—from $5,100 to $7,700 for full-time virtual schools, and $7,600 to $10,200 for the blended version."

Click here for a copy of the full report. Also check back with Liberating Learning as we  look in-depth at the report and provide detailed coverage on the reaction to the report's findings from the online learning community.