Speaking of virtual schools, Wake County school administrators are looking to broaden the opportunities for high school students to take academic enrichment courses.

At last week's Wake County school board policy committee meeting, staff presented changes they're working on to the district's dual enrollment policy and its R&P. The policy governs how high school students can take supplementary courses at other secondary schools or institutions of higher education to get academic credit.

A big proposed change would be to end the monopoly on non-secondary schools having to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for students to get credit from them. Wake would now say that accreditation could come from other regional equivalents to SACS.

Will the Wake County school board join a group of school systems from across the state in urging that a virtual charter school not be allowed to open this year?

The N.C. School Boards Association has gotten at least 35 school districts to pass resolutions joining in the litigation opposing the new N.C. Virtual Academy. Now the Wake County school board is scheduled to vote on the issue today.

Normally, new charter schools get approval by going to the state Board of Education. But N.C. Learns Inc. instead got preliminary approval from the Cabarrus school board in January to open the proposed K-12 school that could eventually educate more than 6,500 students across the state.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST  FOR LINK TO TERRY STOOPS POST

Also, corrected to say that Goldman is not facing a runoff for auditor. Her opponent did not request a runoff.

Should the Wake County school system reached into its already tight budget to pay for high school students to take courses at the N.C. Virtual Public School this spring?

As noted in today's article, state education officials are, for the time being, not allowing students in Wake and 14 other school systems to enroll students at NCVPS for the spring semester. The number of districts on this list is likely to go up as registration continues for the spring.

The issue is that faster-than-expected enrollment growth means the school is facing a potential $3 million funding shortfall. For districts like Wake who've maxed out their state funding for NCVPS, it means having to come up with local funding to pay for students to attend.