An opinion:
Perhaps the single most ubiquitous remainder of the 2020 COVID 19 pandemic will be in the educational realm. Grade schools have gone partially, primarily, or even exclusively on-line in their instruction. While educators say that is not the preferred way to educate young people, school administrators with an eye on the bottom line are perhaps taking a different view. With sales tax revenues dwindling and costs of running schools exploding, it is very easy to see that budget gals and guys at the local ISDs are looking for ways to cut costs.
Enter the University of Phoenix. And Southern New Hampshire University (and Capella, and Strayer, and Maryville). Each of these entities can quickly boot up a K-12 curriculum and start churning out “graduates” tomorrow if regulators would allow it. In my experience—yours may vary and if it does, please share—I have not seen commercial takeovers of the K-12 curriculum. Surely there have been forays into that area but I have not seen Westside High School shut down because they are now acting as a host for UoP/SNHU’s programs.
That could change. In fact, I’m comfortable in saying that in some communities it is a mathematical foregone conclusion.
First there is the cost end of the equation. Imagine not having to issue bonds to build new schools. Selling the land that currently houses schools. There may be a building or two where students can physically travel to and avail themselves of on-line resources and nutritional support but the days of having three physical class rooms for freshman English are going bye-bye. Ditto for the inflated costs of the upkeep of those classrooms, the inflated costs of utilities, the inflated costs of insurance, staffing, and as we have seen in the not too distant past…liability from disciplining students with some measure of force.
Secondly, there is the quality of education that is supposedly so cherished that turning to a for-profit institution is a non-starter. Lets face it, public schools are failing by most measures. There are some exceptional students who come from the public school system but by and large, the money thrown at education has not yielded better results top to bottom. It can’t be seriously argued that there is any serious drop off between what you see in in-person instruction versus on-line learning.
As with most things, I think we should create experiments to prove the hypothesis I just layed out. The federal government should take 10 states (2 large states, 2 small states, 2 rural states, 2 industrial states, and 2 states chosen at random) and tell them that their education budget is taken care of for the next 10 years. Have one each of the states listed above go completely on-line and have the other make no changes. Give any family who doesn’t want their kids to go through this a voucher to pay for private school. And see where we are in 10 years using standardized tests, drop out rates, overall well-being surveys, and other criteria that is appropriate.
I think you’ll see that there is no major difference between the on-line and the in-person education.
Thirdly, there is also the me-me-me generation we currently have. Mrs. Jones at Westside High demands you be on time for roll call at 8:00 AM and wants homework turned in at the beginning of class. Mrs. Smith at Capella K-12 is much more easy to work with. If the 20 y/o mother of two wants to go to Cabo with her boyfriend in October, Smith will likely say, no problemo (she’ll probably use that exact phrase) and allow their kid to turn in the work when they get back from vacay. While there are a great many parents who would crawl across broken glass for their kids to have a better life than they have, there are a growing group of parents who have outsourced raising their kids to the schools and whatever is “accredited” is acceptable. Accreditation is all that is needed, after all. It gives the administrators as well as the parents cover.
Now, will all of this translate into a savings on the ISD taxes? Maybe but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. The ISDs will still act as supervisory entities making sure (giggle) that SNHU is not putting zombies in front of the kids and that actual instructors are doing the instructing….although they may be in Mumbai or Pakistan. Accreditation. So there will still be a massive bureaucracy that is in place but there will be fewer people in that scrum.
All in all, this will be the new “defense department contract” of the future. Billions upon billions of dollars will be transferred from the States to these degree mills err I mean diploma mills. There are 13,000 school districts across the nation; 13,000 clients. Each one with hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions) to spend. There will be some districts that wouldn’t hear of outsourcing it’s education. There will be some who will be forced to by the State since they are not already reaching the benchmarks. I think a great many will start with a few subjects. History for example. But it will expand through out the curricula in short order.
Your thoughts are welcome.
Perhaps the single most ubiquitous remainder of the 2020 COVID 19 pandemic will be in the educational realm. Grade schools have gone partially, primarily, or even exclusively on-line in their instruction. While educators say that is not the preferred way to educate young people, school administrators with an eye on the bottom line are perhaps taking a different view. With sales tax revenues dwindling and costs of running schools exploding, it is very easy to see that budget gals and guys at the local ISDs are looking for ways to cut costs.
Enter the University of Phoenix. And Southern New Hampshire University (and Capella, and Strayer, and Maryville). Each of these entities can quickly boot up a K-12 curriculum and start churning out “graduates” tomorrow if regulators would allow it. In my experience—yours may vary and if it does, please share—I have not seen commercial takeovers of the K-12 curriculum. Surely there have been forays into that area but I have not seen Westside High School shut down because they are now acting as a host for UoP/SNHU’s programs.
That could change. In fact, I’m comfortable in saying that in some communities it is a mathematical foregone conclusion.
First there is the cost end of the equation. Imagine not having to issue bonds to build new schools. Selling the land that currently houses schools. There may be a building or two where students can physically travel to and avail themselves of on-line resources and nutritional support but the days of having three physical class rooms for freshman English are going bye-bye. Ditto for the inflated costs of the upkeep of those classrooms, the inflated costs of utilities, the inflated costs of insurance, staffing, and as we have seen in the not too distant past…liability from disciplining students with some measure of force.
Secondly, there is the quality of education that is supposedly so cherished that turning to a for-profit institution is a non-starter. Lets face it, public schools are failing by most measures. There are some exceptional students who come from the public school system but by and large, the money thrown at education has not yielded better results top to bottom. It can’t be seriously argued that there is any serious drop off between what you see in in-person instruction versus on-line learning.
As with most things, I think we should create experiments to prove the hypothesis I just layed out. The federal government should take 10 states (2 large states, 2 small states, 2 rural states, 2 industrial states, and 2 states chosen at random) and tell them that their education budget is taken care of for the next 10 years. Have one each of the states listed above go completely on-line and have the other make no changes. Give any family who doesn’t want their kids to go through this a voucher to pay for private school. And see where we are in 10 years using standardized tests, drop out rates, overall well-being surveys, and other criteria that is appropriate.
I think you’ll see that there is no major difference between the on-line and the in-person education.
Thirdly, there is also the me-me-me generation we currently have. Mrs. Jones at Westside High demands you be on time for roll call at 8:00 AM and wants homework turned in at the beginning of class. Mrs. Smith at Capella K-12 is much more easy to work with. If the 20 y/o mother of two wants to go to Cabo with her boyfriend in October, Smith will likely say, no problemo (she’ll probably use that exact phrase) and allow their kid to turn in the work when they get back from vacay. While there are a great many parents who would crawl across broken glass for their kids to have a better life than they have, there are a growing group of parents who have outsourced raising their kids to the schools and whatever is “accredited” is acceptable. Accreditation is all that is needed, after all. It gives the administrators as well as the parents cover.
Now, will all of this translate into a savings on the ISD taxes? Maybe but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. The ISDs will still act as supervisory entities making sure (giggle) that SNHU is not putting zombies in front of the kids and that actual instructors are doing the instructing….although they may be in Mumbai or Pakistan. Accreditation. So there will still be a massive bureaucracy that is in place but there will be fewer people in that scrum.
All in all, this will be the new “defense department contract” of the future. Billions upon billions of dollars will be transferred from the States to these degree mills err I mean diploma mills. There are 13,000 school districts across the nation; 13,000 clients. Each one with hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions) to spend. There will be some districts that wouldn’t hear of outsourcing it’s education. There will be some who will be forced to by the State since they are not already reaching the benchmarks. I think a great many will start with a few subjects. History for example. But it will expand through out the curricula in short order.
Your thoughts are welcome.
