The N.C. Charter Schools Review Board approved requests on Monday from four charter schools to start virtual programs, bringing the total to 21 remote charter academies approved across the state. The addition of those remote charter academies — as well as others recently approved by the Review Board — will add thousands of new virtual seats at charter schools this fall.
Many charter schools have waiting lists for their in-person seats so starting remote academies allows them to accept more students. This also means additional per-pupil funding for each student.
“We’ve been pontificating about our beliefs on remote schools. So mine is I don’t believe in the remote schools,” said Review Board member Stephen Gay. “And let’s just call it what it is. I see it as a money grab for a lot of schools that are doing it.”
The money grab comment drew a backlash from Review Board chair Bruce Friend, who said he was trying not to be offended by the statement. Friend is superintendent of Pine Springs Preparatory Academy, which recently won approval to spin off its virtual program to a standalone charter school called Dogwood Virtual School.
“If it’s a money grab, then we need to weed that out from the get-go, not make that a generic comment that applies to those involved in this learning environment,” Friend said. State adding more virtual charter school seats
The state’s first two virtual charter schools — N.C. Virtual Academy and N.C. Cyber Academy — opened in 2015 as pilot programs ordered by state lawmakers. Despite being labeled low-performing during most of their tenure, the Review Board gave them five-year renewals in January.
More than 10,000 North Carolina students attend remote charter school academies this school year. That number will rise this fall with the Review Board approving new statewide virtual charter schools such as N.C. Connections Academy.
While many new brick-and-mortar charter schools have had problems recruiting students, N.C. Connections is ahead of its projected enrollment. It already has 1,046 students registered to begin in August.
On Monday, the Review Board approved remote charter academy requests from Central Wake High School, Triangle Math and Science Academy (TMSA), Jackson Day School and Phoenix Academy.
“We take this work seriously,” said Bryan Setzer, TMSA’s director of innovation. “We believe in do-no-harm. We have a mission to educate and give students opportunities, and we’re going to do it in a thoughtful way.”
Friend said he expects schools will shut down their remote academies if they don’t feel they’re working out as intended. Remote charter school academies are ‘the future’
A recurring theme from some Review Board members on Monday was that they need to accept that many families want virtual options even after the issues that occurred during the pandemic.
“This is the future.,” said Review Board vice chair John Eldridge. “As a guy that supports and is an advocate for school choice, if this is what parents want and if they feel like it’s what’s best for their kids, we’ve got to find a way to do it the best way possible.”
Review Board member Shelly Shope said remote learning allowed her son to graduate from high school despite his health issues.
“I just feel like we are also charged with staying current and making sure that we allow charter schools to stay current,” Shope said Can NC tell if virtual schools are doing good?
The academic data is “predictable” about what will happen to the hundreds of students, often underserved ones, who will attend remote programs, according to Review Board member Eric Sanchez. As an example, Sanchez pointed to the decade-long performance issues at the state’s original virtual charter schools.
N.C. Virtual and N.C. Cyber have cited how they get students who have struggled in traditional schools for why their academic performance isn’t as high as they’d like it to be.
“If we’re talking about money grabs and we’re talking about, you know, exploding something that there’s no accountability whatsoever, how do we know at the end really what is good?” Sanchez said.
As time goes on, the Review Board is expecting more requests for remote academies from the state’s 200+ brick-and-mortar charter schools as well as from new virtual-only schools.
“I don’t think virtual schools are good or bad,” said Review Board member Eric Guckian. “But as we continue to approve them, I’d like to understand as an approver of this what does best practice look like for a virtual school?”
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