Guest Commentary: Georgia Public Policy Foundation Says Expanding Digital Learning Opportunities Should be on Legislature's Agenda

Kelly McCutchen is president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a research and education foundation dedicated to limited government, private enterprise, and individual responsibility. In a recent op-ed article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, McCutchen outline some of the issues the Georgia Legislature should tackle this term in order to "reshape state government."
Digital learning was on McCutchen's agenda.
"Digital learning is poised to fundamentally transform k-12 education over the next decade," McCutchen wrote. "Georgia must embrace this chance to remove barriers to a stellar education for poor- and middle-class students, starting with restoring the state’s ability to offer educational opportunities that don’t trap children within local school system borders."
Click here to read the complete article and learn why McCutchen  would like to see the Georgia Constitution amended to help the growth of online learning.

Guest Commentary: An Op-ed in the Georgia Athens Banner-Herald Calls for Innovation in School Funding

Kelly McCutchen is president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, an independent think tank that proposes market-oriented approaches to public policy.

Earlier this month, McCutchen had an essay published in the Athens Banner-Herald advocating that Georgian change the method it uses to fund public schools in a way that helps boost virtual schools.

"Treat school funding as we do charter schools, focusing on results rather than micromanaging inputs. A lump sum of funding, determined by the student's educational needs, should follow each child, allowing each school to determine its own funding priorities," McCutchen writes.

"Georgia's children will benefit greatly from digital learning that enables them to learn at their own pace, customizes each lesson to their learning style and offers them a wide variety of choices without needing to leave their neighborhood school or move to another school district. With Georgia's per-student spending already 23rd-highest in the nation, there may be no need to spend more money. But there certainly is a need to spend more wisely. Let's ensure that "following the money" in Georgia leads to innovation, not to the status quo," McCutchen adds.

Click here to read the entire essay.

Lisa Graham Keegan: Georgia on My Mind

This week's decision by the Georgia Supreme Court does not eliminate public charter schools in Georgia. It is simply a devastating reminder of how incredibly wrong our state laws for funding students are. And worse, how we wear out our best advocates through mind-numbing and repetitive defeats like this.
The time has come and gone and come again for states to quit funding districts, and to start funding students. Money in backpacks, traveling to any school that will openly accept all students and report on their progress via state measurement systems.
Click here to read more of my thoughts on what's happening in Georgia and for more links on background information on this issue.

Guest Commentary: Georgia Public Policy Foundation: U.S. Education has a Choice--Innovate or Become Irrlevant

Imagine that two little boys were playing ball in the field when the one with freckles said, "When I grow up, I'm going to be just like my Dad! He works in the factory putting zippers into blue jeans."
The other little boy, without any freckles, smiled as only little boys can smile and said, "When I grow up, I'm going to be just like my Dad! I don't know what he does but he wears a suit. I'm going to wear a suit, too!"
Odds are very long that neither little boy would grow up to be just like Dad. Zipper jobs at the blue jeans factory left the country, and whatever job the other little boy's dad had was probably reinvented and might also be extinct.
The message here is both little boys must be educated for a work world that will continue to evolve, not the one that allowed their Dads to earn steady incomes.
There is widespread recognition this will require new approaches. Learning without borders is the idea public education must embrace technology and new ways to make material available to students.
That is the message former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise brought to a recent conference hosted in Atlanta by the Public Policy Foundation and the Conservative Leadership Policy Institute. Wise and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush launched the Digital Learning Council this year to focus on new strategies for digital change in education. How to integrate learning without borders into traditional settings that might resist new ideas is the challenge being addressed by the Digital Learning Council and like-minded groups.
Click here to read more of Georgia Public Policy Foundation editor Mike Klein's take on the virtual education movement and why he believes U.S. education must innovate or become irrelevant.

Michael B. Horn: A Letter to the Georgia Education Community

The state of Georgia is no stranger to online learning. According to the Keeping Pace with Online Learning K-12 report, 13,000-15,000 Georgia students took online course in 2008-2009. The Georgia Virtual School, a state-run entity under the auspices of the state Department of Education, boasted 9,793 enrollments in 2008-2009 school year. Georgia has full-time online charter as well, including the Georgia Virtual Academy, a K-8 school operated by the online learning company K12 Inc.that served 4,400 full-time students in 2008-2009.
Even with this growth of online learning in Georgia, many continue to see it as merely a small part of education that adds choices that may better fit a student's needs. That is certainly true, but online learning is much more than that. It is a disruptive innovation that has the potential to help transform the present-day monolithic, factory-model education system into a student-centric and far more affordable fit for the 21st century.
As a result, there are still significant opportunities for Georgia to do much more with online learning. If the state plays its cards right, it has the potential to provide many more students and families with quality choices for their education and transform public education in the process.
Click here to read my complete message to Georgians on how online learning is an opportunity to transform public education in their state.

Guest Commentary: Georgia Public Policy Foundation Editor Takes on Gubernatorial Candidates Over Virtual Education

Mike Klein, editor with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, an an independent think tank that proposes practical, market-oriented approaches to public policy, writes “Public school education agendas proposed by the two major candidates for Georgia Governor leave wide open a hole that any running back would appreciate.”
Republican Nathan Deal and Democrat Roy Barnes put forward plans that give only slight mention to digital learning. They're overlooking a significant education priority for the state's children, according to Klein.
Education agendas from Georgia’s two major party gubernatorial candidates are politically safe proposals that seek to ensure voters the children will be in good hands and teachers could stop worrying about their pensions and furlough dates.
Klein says Georgia deserves better. The candidates’ agendas should be bolder.
Click here to read the entire article.