Growing Demand For Online Learning

Virtual School is $3 million short

High school students from Wake County and across the state are being blocked, at least temporarily, from attending the N.C. Virtual Public School in the spring because of a likely $3 million funding shortfall. The virtual school's $20 million budget is divided among school systems based on their previous enrollment in the program. The solution will require school systems such as Wake to decide whether they want to tap into already strained local budgets to pay for students to take courses online. "It's safe to say that there are students who won't be at NCVPS because of the funding shortfall," Philip Price, chief financial officer at the state Department of Public Instruction, said on Monday.