Editorial: Online education is important part of school choice discussion

School choice is not just a political idea that scores points on one side and sparks opposition on the other.

Decisions about a child’s education are never easy. They start with preschool. Do you do it at all? Do you choose a public school program if one is available? What about Head Start or a private program?

It doesn’t get easier as kids get older. There is the whole public or private or parochial question, but there are more options, too. Magnet schools. Charter schools. Home school. Cyber programs. And if you decide to go online, do you want a cybercharter or does your district offer distance education?

It was a twisting maze for parents in 2019 when decisions were about what you wanted your kids to learn, how you wanted them to learn it and what the family’s values were.

In 2022, it’s as much about that as it is about health concerns and politics.

Some parents make the choices to go to an in-person school because they believe it is important after the losses experienced by going online during the coronavirus pandemic. Some believe schools and government have overstepped boundaries or overreacted with restrictions.

For others, online options might seem safer during a pandemic, when your kid isn’t separated by a mask or a few feet but by a wireless connection. For people on either side of the political spectrum, it might be a way to assert personal preferences in a school district where the majority leans the other way.

For school districts, however, it can be a drain on resources if parents choose a cybercharter that can ultimately pull funding out of the brick-and-mortar education programs.

Districts have fought this for years by attempting to find online offerings that would satisfy parents and fulfill student needs without requiring the local district to pay a cyber provider on the other side of the state.

Westmoreland Online Academy — a joint effort by Hempfield Area, Franklin Regional and Norwin school districts — is looking at expanding its program from its kindergarten to fifth grade enrollment, which has more than 100 students. There are discussions underway about opening up to middle school and high school students by the fall.

“The thought process for the collaborative is to expand the current elementary offering into the secondary grades in order to share the instructional responsibility between the three districts,” said Matthew Conner, Hempfield’s assistant superintendent for secondary education. “By sharing resources amongst the three districts, we can ensure the program remains viable in the future, and it helps to ensure it is done in a financially responsible manner.”

Finding a way for the districts to lean on each other to provide what students need is an admirable evolution of school choice. It isn’t just because students and families and school districts can all come out ahead. It is because it promotes the idea of finding a way to make things work for everyone. Too often, that is left behind in discussions about school choice.