Mississinawa Valley: Online Education Help Students. College Classes More Common to Have Online Education

Mississinawa Valley Schools in Darke County may be one of the first school districts to use online classes for their students. The test will be limited though: it came about as a result of the districts only being allowed to declare three “calamity days” (typically snow days) this year, which was much lower than the previous five per year. Rather than forcing students to brave difficult weather, their classes will be held at home: a new experiment where children will use their home computers for classes.

But the school districts shouldn’t get too comfortable with the idea: after all, if parents wanted their children at home during the day, where they have to supervise them, they would just homeschool them. After all, homeschooled children typically score in the 90th percentile (with no major difference between minority or white homeschoolers’ SAT scores, as opposed to the wide racial gap in public schools) and begin attending college up to a year sooner than their peers. So while some are hailing the online classes as a step forward, it may be one step too far: why would parents’ pay an average of $10,000 a year in taxes to a public school district to have their children stay at home, where parents, who are themselves better educators, would be required to supervise?

Overall, it may just be the broken education system’s attempt to meet an increasingly difficult budget. The real solution may be just to do away with it all together. With unemployment so high, there is no shortage of teachers sitting on the couch back home.