Virtual School, Real Classroom?

My son's education has been on my mind as of late and I've been looking into what we might do to ensure our son gets the best possible education within our budget.

Now, of course, the best in the Seattle area might be University Child Development School, which reminds me of The Mirman School in Los Angeles, where I attended Jr. High. But to get the best chance of admission and long-term success with the program, you need to get the child in between the ages of 3-5.

Besides the fact that I'm not sure I want my kid in a Junior Genius pre-school, even if he turns out to be one, full-day tuition is more expensive than a year of resident tuition at UW law school. Furthermore, I'm paying various taxes to help cover the cost of public education, and there's currently no way for me to get any of that back.

Enter the Washington Virtual Academy. It's individualized and my child can work up to his ability in any subject (i.e. a third grader could be doing 7th grade math and science coursework if he/she showed the aptitude). Best of all, it's paid for by the state like public school. Add on to this a $99 a month unlimited online tutoring package from a company like Tutor Vista to cover homework help and the push to move beyond his grade level... and I've got a heck of an education for $900 a year.

Only one problem... who stays home with the kid? Both the virtual classroom and the virtual tutor are online. There's no physical school to go to where they'll take custody of my kid for the day. Kids who do this are basically homeschooled.

I don't want to do homeschooling. My wife and I both like the financial benefits of a two-income family.

But it occurs to me... even if the kid's in all-day school (as opposed to a half-day Kindergarten), we have to pay for after school day care. What if a day-care got the bright idea to offer a day program for virtual students? They provide a classroom setting with computers at each desk where the students can do their lessons, a teacher/monitor for each room to provide supervision and assistance, and opportunities for daily play and social interaction for the kids.

It brings back expense issues like private school, but parents could save 6-8 thousand a year... or more... and gives parents the ability to take advantage of the individualized, self-paced learning programs without having to change or quit jobs so they can stay home.

Hopefully, by the time my son is ready for kindergarten, this kind of program will exist. I want the best education for my son, but even if the school's coming to him over the internet, I think it would do him good to go to a place of learning each day. And it would do his parents good too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 2:42 am and is filed under Techno Thoughts.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.