Receiving state per-pupil dollars in combination with high teacher-student ratios and low overhead costs mean hefty profits for online charter schools, but Luis Huerta has serious concerns about these cyber institutions.  "There are few teachers and few buildings," the professor of organization and leadership said. "If states are not going to decrease per-pupil funding for schools with ridiculously low overhead, they're promoting that there are profits to be made here." 

Huerta advised that states change per-pupil funding to reflect the actual costs of the online schools.  "This is a very fertile land," he said.  "There's a lot of profit to be made here."

The article, entitled "New Player in Online School Market Pursues Profits," appeared in the December 8 edition of Education Week.

For further reading, see Professor Huerta's January 2004 paper, "Cyber and Home School Charter Schools: How States are Defining New Forms of Public Schooling."

Published Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005