Bruce Friend Chief Administrative Officer

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Breaking Through the Funding Challenges of State
Virtual Schools
Bruce FriendChief Administrative
Officer www.flvs.net
Julie E. Young President and CEO Florida Virtual
School
Julie E. Young President and CEO Florida Virtual
School
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They Come in All Flavors

• State appropriations and grants
• State public education funding
• Federal funding
• Private grants
• Course fees
• Subscription memberships

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Funding Model Challenges

• New standards of accountability
• Managing growth while maintaining quality
• Meeting the demand
• Enrollment and budget projections and management
• Implementation of unique funding report with
  current state information systems

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Ideal Funding Model Attributes

• Student centered
• Recognizes the flexibility inherent in distance
  learning
• Capitalizes on the flexibility in distance
  learning
• Supports future growth
• Permanency

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• State Appropriations or Grants
• Benefits
• Clearly defined allotment of money to build
  budget
• Allowed for controlled growth each year
• Non-threatening to school districts
• Challenges
• Student demand may exceed the ability to serve
• Line Item or grant status is not stable or
  permanent
• Examples
• Florida Virtual
• Michigan Virtual
• Illinois Virtual
• Kentucky Virtual
• University of California College Prep Initiative
  (UCCP)

6
Subscription Membership Model

• Benefits
• District demand drives the ability to serve
• Non-threatening to school districts
• Challenges
• Undefined allotment of money to build budget
• Unpredictable growth pattern
• Membership status is not stable or permanent
• Examples
• Virtual High School
• Michigan High School

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Florida Virtual School

• A "full-time equivalent student" (FTE) for FLVS
  is one student who has successfully completed 6
  credits that shall count toward the minimum
  number of credits required for high school
  graduation
• A student who completes less than six credits
  shall be a fraction of an FTE student.
• Half credit completions shall be included in
  determining an FTE student
• Credit completed by a student in excess of the
  minimum required for that student for high school
  graduation is not eligible for funding.
• FTE student credit completion for courses offered
  through FLVS shall be reported only by FLVS.
• School districts shall report full-time
  equivalent student membership only for courses
  for which the district provides the instruction.

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State Public Education Funding

• Benefits
• Stability
• Flexibility in growth no cap
• Legitimacy
• Challenges
• Initially more threatening to school districts
• No cap
• Examples
• Florida Virtual School
• Arkansas Virtual High School
• Georgia Virtual High School

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Federal Funding

• Benefits
• Legitimacy
• Clearly defined allotment of money to build
  budget
• Allowed for controlled growth each year
• Non-threatening to school districts
• Allows for a jump-start
• Challenges
• Paperwork and documentation can be a fulltime job
• Federal funding is usually not stable or
  permanent
• Less flexibility to adjust direction based on
  lessons learned
• Examples
• Virtual High School
• Illinois Virtual High School
• West Virginia Virtual School

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Private Grants

• Benefits
• Legitimacy
• Clearly defined allotment of money to build
  budget
• Non-threatening to school districts
• Allows for a jump-start
• Challenges
• Private funding is usually not stable or
  permanent
• Often enough for startup but not sustaining the
  program
• Private funding can be manipulated by the funders
  objectives
• Examples
• Idaho Digital Learning Academy

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Course Fees

• Benefits
• Student enrollment drives funding model
• Student enrollment drives personnel model
• Flexibility in payee
• Challenges
• More threatening to school districts
• Confusion as to who is expected to pay
• Reliant on the unknown less predictable
• Examples
• All but 4 statewide programs charge course fees
  (Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Michigan)

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Cost Factors to Consider

• Personnel models
• Hosting
• LMS
• Content
• Training
• Planning and implementation support
• Supervision from a distance
• Communications
• Travel
• Hardware
• Ongoing support and maintenance

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Build, Buy, or Blend

• Develop
• Purchase and modify
• License

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Build

• Sufficient number of students to support the cost
  of development and ongoing maintenance
• Quality content is not available or is not
  available at a reasonable price
• Unique content requirements

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Buy

• Sufficient number of students exist over time so
  it is cost effective to purchase and modify a
  course
• Courses have been field tested for quality prior
  to purchasing them to use with your students
• One time money is available
• The not invented here syndrome

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Blend

• Student enrollment does not financially warrant
  developing an entire suite of courses
• More than 80 of state standards can be aligned
  with existing content
• Unstable or non-recurring funding model
• Limited support staff
• Enrollment drives funding model

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Personnel Model

• Fulltime vs. part-time support personnel
• Adjunct instructors
• Fulltime instructors
• Equipment to provide or not provide
• Per student vs. salary vs. contract