SkepticWolf

Someone else in this thread mentioned "Ready Player One," a book in which the author sets up something very similar (the protagonist is enrolled in such a school). Ever since I read that book I've had the idea tickling the back of my mind, it's very cool that someone is setting out to actually do it.

You're obviously fairly early in the process here, so my question is probably putting the cart WAY ahead of the horse, but here it is anyway: How can I get involved in this as a teacher?

Rough background; I'm a certified K-12 music teacher with multiple years of experience, but currently not in a teaching job (rough economy). If I had a chance to leave my non-teaching job for something like this I'd jump at the chance. My brain is already spinning with ideas to implement a music curriculum in a (very) unusual logistical format like this. Music (band, chorus, orchestra) is one of the few disciplines that usually require a physical presence to do it effectively, but things like this (link below) are making it a real possibility to have groups performing remotely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs

You're going to need to develop some kind of music curriculum, as almost every state in the US has at least some kind of music requirement for accreditation. I'd love the chance to help develop some of these methods/programs. I've got a ton of ideas. Let me know :).

Good luck, this is very cool.

Something else that occurred to me as I slept on the idea:

This whole thing bears a lot of similarity to home-schooling in the sense that it would be a parental choice to avoid the traditional school system. Home-schooling is already very active (at least around where I live), and a lot of those parents are choosing to supplement their home curriculum with online courses. Some Home school curriculum providers even offer their own online classes for subjects parents may not feel capable of teaching themselves.

So the question would be: Are there any plans to interface this project with existing home school programs? Would kids be able to enroll in a couple of specific classes, rather than enrolling "full time" as it were? And if so...would other people be able to enroll on a class by class basis? (like someone mentioned, adults, etc).

There's not usually any tuition for public schools in the US. So they are generally "free" to attend. There always ends up being some cost for materials, lunches, field trips, activity fees, etc, but the idea is that children should have education available to them even if they're parents can't afford anything.

That said, everyone who lives in the town ends up paying for the school, whether they have kids that go to that school or not, via property taxes. So ultimately it's not "free," but there's not a specific tuition per student.

(there are exceptions to all of this, but that's the usual model)

Super relevant: http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html