Article in Wired looking at the cost of virtual schools:
In addition to offering the latest technology and allowing parents to be more actively involved in their children's education, virtual schools were also thought to lower the cost of teaching.Although her schools have no classrooms, desks, cafeterias or gymnasiums, they aren't much cheaper to operate than a traditional school, says Mickey Revenaugh, vice president for partnerships and outreach for Connections Academy. Revenaugh says that the cost of computers, printers and cutting-edge curricula offsets most of the virtual schools' cost savings from paying fewer teachers and minimizing building-maintenance fees.
This article looks at K-12 schools, but there are similar issues in higher education. In my experience, more universities are using technology as a supplement to traditional classroom experiences (with the exception of distance efforts), and part of the argument for doing so has always been cost and/or efficiency. I suspect that in many cases these arguments would break down under close scrutiny.
Posted by Jason at April 1, 2004 03:05 PM