Group Plans to Launch Online K-12 Curriculum

A prominent group of investors and educators announced plans Wednesday to open a school in cyberspace that will allow students in kindergarten through 12th grade to get an education without ever stepping foot in a classroom.

The new virtual campus is aimed at the nation’s nearly 2 million home-schooled students, but its curriculum also is being marketed to school districts and parents who want to supplement the traditional public school education.

The venture represents an effort to offer an alternative to public schools and to tap into a lucrative market worth billions of dollars, industry analysts say.

Known as K12, the school will cost about $1,500 annually for the basic curriculum. The price can rise to $5,000 or more for courses, a computer, on-call teacher assistance and other services.

William J. Bennett, the former U.S. secretary of Education and drug czar, is developing the project with financial support from Lowell Milken, brother of convicted “junk-bond” financier Michael Milken and head of Knowledge Universe Learning Group. The company invested an initial $10 million.

“Anybody who is interested will get a high-powered curriculum that will be as good as virtually anything out there,” said Bennett, who added that his conservative brand of values will be reflected in some of the course work.

Educators said the school will be one of only a few to offer a full K-12 curriculum over the Internet.

Skeptics questioned the worth of an education in cyberspace, wondering whether students will complete school work without a live teacher to keep a careful watch.

“Online learning in the early grades can be a great adjunct, but it is not a substitute for a quality education delivered in person,” said Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union.

Missed Opportunities

Others questioned whether children who learn over the Internet will miss out on important social interactions at school that are as important as the books they study in class.

“I think there would definitely be some serious problems,” said Gary Chapman, director of the 21st Century Project, a research and education program on science and technology policy at the University of Texas at Austin. “This is a debate that has been going on for some time. Is education just the passing on of information or something more holistic?”

The new online school is scheduled to open next fall. Initially, it will serve students in kindergarten through second grade. Additional grade levels will be added, with the school seeking to serve 100,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade within four years, said Ron Packard, the new school’s chief executive officer and a vice president at Knowledge Universe Learning Group’s parent company.

The online school represents the latest effort by private industry to tap into the multibillion-dollar education market. From companies running day-care centers and public schools to firms selling reading and math software, education is attracting growing interest among investors looking for new opportunities.

A recent report by a Wall Street investment firm concluded that K-12 education is the largest segment of the education industry and places its value at $360 billion.

“The classic investment opportunity is where there is a problem,” said Michael T. Moe, director of global growth research for Merrill Lynch & Co. and author of the report “The Knowledge Web.” “Companies that offer solutions to problems do very well.”

Online learning is one of the fastest-growing segments in education, analysts say. Several thousand high school students nationwide already take advanced placement courses offered over the Internet. Students also tap a range of other educational services in cyberspace, such as SAT training, college counseling and virtual field trips.

The online services come with their share of technical glitches that can interfere with learning, students and teachers say. Some computers lack adequate modems or memory to accommodate online course work. Others have trouble printing thick documents with dense graphics.

One local educator said online learning is the wave of the future but that some children will be left behind.

“At our school, there are a lot of parents who would love to buy their kids computers. They just don’t have the funds,” said Gary Moskovitz, the computer lab coordinator at Mayo Elementary School in Compton. “We have students who don’t even have the money to buy new clothes. So where are they going to find the money to buy a new computer?”

Bennett said the new online school will provide scholarships for some students who cannot afford the service. He said that computers and online schools will give students newfound freedom to learn at their own pace.

Courses Being Designed

In the new school, students will be able to sign up for just one course or use the system as a supplement in after-school programs. Young students who are learning to read will spend only part of their time on the computer and the rest using materials downloaded from the Internet or purchased directly from the school.

Bennett and his associates, who include a number of respected educators and researchers, are still designing the curriculum. He said the math portion will be based on California’s new academic content standards for what students need to know in each grade.

He predicted that the online programs will engage parents in their children’s education. “You don’t buy K12 as a baby sitter,” he said.

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Times staff writer Jill Leovy contributed to this story.