Nearly 200,000 students in the U.S. are educated in full-time virtual schools. Touted as a promising (and cost-effective) way to educate, online schools are coming under tremendous criticism due to a lack of accountability and student success.
“The virtual schools are gaming the system,” says Gary Miron, a professor of education at Western Michigan University whose expertise is evaluating school reforms and education policies. “They get [public] funding based on the number of students they get in the door. Then many of these students struggle and fail and leave.”