School district is offering Great Lakes Online Education program

by Dan Sanderson-Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 22, 2012 10:12 AM EDT

Home-schooled and parochial school students will be able to take advanced placement courses and students that don't do well in a traditional classroom setting will be able to take classes through a new online program offered by the Crawford AuSable School District.

The Crawford AuSable School District is rolling out a new online program called Great Lakes Online Education (GLOE).

Changes in federal and state education laws allow students to gain credit toward graduation by taking online courses.

One popular online education program claims it is non-profit and is a free virtual school. The program, however, collects state funding for the student, gained from the fourth Friday student count in September, but does not continue to mentor the students, said Brian Banda, the director for GLOE.

Often, students return to public schools, but the school district are not getting reimbursed for costs incurred.

"They're dropping the ball on these students once they receive the funding and that's our concern," Banda said. "We want to be able to provide that education for everyone."

Banda stressed that school officials want to keep students enrolled in the schools since the district has received high state and national recognition.

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School district is offering Great Lakes Online Education program