Cyberspace schools might be the new frontier in education, but Indiana charter school sponsors are wise to tread carefully where few have dared to go. Unsettled issues have created havoc in other states, including Pennsylvania, where questions about money and residency requirements have muddied the charter school landscape. The question now is whether charter schools without walls will have an unfair advantage over the bricks-and-mortar charters. It's a question that should be settled before the first cyber charter is approved.

Luis Herta, an assistant professor of education at New York City's Columbia University Teachers College told Education Week that he had serious concerns about online schools, some of which have student-teacher ratios of more than 50 to 1. "This is a very fertile land," Herta said. "There's a lot of profit to be made here."

This article appeared in the July 27^th edition of The Journal Gazette.

Published Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005