Reply to Re-instituting Virtual Academy in MCPS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think MD should create a virtual academy for the entire state. [/quote]

The bill encourages districts that aren’t able to create their own virtual academy to team up with other districts and share academies. So maybe they all end up teaming up with whatever district has the best program and essentially create a state wide school. But the state isn’t going to do that via the bill that’s proposed - it puts the mandate on each district to figure it out. 
 [/quote]

You realize that a state wide program would cost more and be paid out of MCPS funds.  Why do you keep pushing it?   It’s not what anyone wants. The money is there.  [/quote]

That’s right. The money follows the student. So if MCPS reinstitutes the virtual academy, it just takes money away from whatever in-person school the now virtual student attends and shifts it to the virtual program. Not sure how MCPS reported to the state legislature that closing the MVA saved the county millions.[b] It should have been pretty neutral since they money is there and is just shifting around from brick and mortar schools to the online program. [/b][/quote]

It wasn't because some classes had as few as 10 kids, and the MVA had its own administrative structure. So they were running an entire parallel system of teachers and administrators for a small number of kids, but the fixed costs of running brick-and-mortar schools were the same.

Look at it like this. Let's say you have a school system of 1000 kids. ES1 has 250 kids. ES2 has 250 kids. MS has 500 and HS has 1000. In this system you have a superintendent, four principals, and let's say 50 teachers.

If 50 of those kids break away, and are equally distributed amongst grades, you now have 3 principals and let's say 20 teachers just for those 50 kids.

So a school system that used to have five administrators now has eight, and a system that used to have 50 teachers now has 70.

It's expensive as heck, and once the data started showing that MVA kids (particularly BIPOC kids) were doing worse than their in-person peers in both measures of learning and absenteeism, it started to feel like a lot of investment for no rewards. [/quote]

If the school district moves a bunch of kids out of brick and mortar, but doesn't adjust their costs, that is poor management.  Plain and simple.[/quote]

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