Right now there should be a State created complete virtual elementary and secondary school curriculum, available online to any registered student and their parents.
Likewise, there should be freeware software available to parents and experts to grow the curriculum in intelligent ways.
In online forums that are part of the system, registered parents can rate and discuss modules and their improvement. And parents can select the non-standard modules they want to provide for their own children, so modules would be rated for their popularity as well as quality.
Importantly, such a curriculum is not limited to being linear, but would have add on modules for depth. So, for example, if a student became interested in Gerald Ford, they could pursue right from the system into biographies of Ford.
The value of such as system in parallel with public, religious, private schools and home schooling, is important for several reasons.
1) It provides teachers with a rough guide they can flesh out with their own instruction.
2) It provides far more potential curriculum subjects than could ever be taught otherwise.
3) It is multimedia, so includes video, audio, and computer interactivity.
4) It is not dependent on the slowest student in a class, nor is it limiting to smarter students.
5) It is available wherever computers are available, so strongly helps transient students keep up their studies.
No conservative should be advocating a “State” created curriculum or school. Moreover, we have experience with virtual charters in several states - Idaho being one. The achievement level for state virtual schools is even below achievement levels for traditional government schools.