Douglas Rosenbloom, attorney for Georgia Families for Public Virtual Education, sent a notice to the Georgia Charter Schools Commission contending their recent actions concerning applications from virtual schools violates state law and demanded the Commission change its policy on virtual school funding.
The Commission acted on applications from five virtual schools this past June. Three of the petitions were denied and two received conditional approval - the condition being they resubmit their petitions with a revised budget under $3200 per student in annual expenses. Both schools withdrew their applications, claiming they couldn't operate at that level of funding. Mr. Rosenbloom contends, on behalf of his client, the full legal funding for a virtual school is three times that amount and noted petitioners typically requested $6400 per student.
There are no current Commission virtual schools, but Odyssey School is a state chartered school which operates the Georgia Cyber Academy, which comprises the majority of their students. Odyssey's state funding is currently $3846 per student.
By comparison, Ivy Prep is a "brick and mortar" Commission school in Gwinnett County which the Commission funded at $7270 per student. The local schools in Gwinnett County receive about $4000 per student in state funding.
Georgia Families for Public Virtual Education claims that research shows that even though virtual schools don't have the expense of buildings or busses, they cost the same to operate as a conventional school. The group and their attorney plan on meeting with the Charter Commission later this month.
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