K12 Comes to California

Bill Bennett's K12, the most well-known virtual school, has created a new virtual charter-school partnership in California. In conjunction with The California Virtual Academy, K12 will now offer school children in grades K-5 throughout Southern California a viable school-choice-like option.

I have been seriously considering the K12 option for Jacob (6). If we did not live in such a kid-barren neighborhood (where the average age is over 65), and if I didn't actually have a real job promoting school choice for everybody else's kids, I might trade in my private school for the K12 option. The curriculum is very impressive--especially the science and music programs. K12 supplies everything--including the computer and online support.

The California K12 partnership should yield some useful future data on the comparison between kids attending a virtual school and kids attending a traditional public school. The K12 kids will be required to participate in California’s standardized testing programs.

This week K12 will be offering Open Houses for parents in several California cities. I plan to attend the Riverside open house on Wednesday--so I can be even more guilty about NOT homeschooling my children. I suffer from homeschool envy.