Virtual Charter Schools and Home Schooling By Carol Klein

So, in spite of those who are critical, pronouncing that home schooled children will not be prepared to successfully live in a highly technolog-ical age, many home school parents have found it otherwise and claim that with their own skills, their love for their children, and the aid of modern technology (e.g., computers, modems, video courses, and online services such as the Internet) they can provide a solid education for their children (Ray, 1997). Statistics continue to support this claim.

The public charter school perspective

The public school system has witnessed another move of reform in recent times. Though home schooling parents have withdrawn from the system in order to deal with their concerns, a new wave of reformers has opted to address challenges from within the system. Public charter schools have emerged in the last 10–12 years to pursue alter-native ways of meeting the high academic standards that are essential for today’s students. They are the most widely used form of school choice in the United States today (Fowler, 2003). Their appearance, which had its beginnings in the early 1990s in Minnesota (Marshall, Gibbs, Greene, Nelson, & Schofield, 2001; Morse, 2001), has spawned great controversy with reactions ranging from a sense of great hope and promise by advocates to sincere alarm and vigorous opposition from opposing voices.

Though no silver bullet, school choice, which is the impetus behind the charter school movement, appears to be here to stay (Fowler, 2003), perhaps because our society has long since become accustomed to the need for multiple choices in everything. To date, 39 states have charter school legislation (Kennedy, 2002) with more than 600,000 students attending 3,000 charter schools nationwide (Schemo, 2004). According to Stuart Wells, this success is attributed in part to the uniting of multiple reform groups (e.g., Black separatists, civil rights leaders, progressive or free school educators, and conservative free-market economists), thus affording broad-based popularity and bipartisan support (Stuart Wells, Slayton, & Scott, 2002).