Julie Young, Virtual Schooling Pioneer

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This week on “The Learning Curve,” guest co-hosts Alisha Thomas Cromartie & Kerry McDonald talk with Julie Young, Deputy Vice President of Education Outreach and Student Services for Arizona State University and CEO of ASU Prep Digital High School. In 2019, 2.7 million K-12 students had an online schooling experience, an 80 percent increase since 2009, with 32 states offering fully online schools. Julie explains the wide appeal of online education for students of all kinds, especially those with learning differences, who are seeking a positive academic experience and more flexibility. They also discuss which states are leading the way and lagging behind, the variety and growth of digital learning programs, and how they enable students to accelerate their learning and contain the costs of higher education.

Stories of the Week: In his State of the Union Address this week, President Trump called on Congress to pass a tax credit scholarship program for low-income students to attend private and religious schools. But is this the proper role of the federal government? Where are the administration’s other proposals for improving public education, and is the rhetoric around school choice becoming politicized? A new report finds that 21 states have made it a high school graduation requirement that students pass a financial literacy course. Is this a welcome opportunity to help young people develop responsible budgeting skills and habits, or is it a form of state-mandated intrusion into subject matter that should be covered at home?

The next episode will air on February 14th, with guest Neal McCluskey, Director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom.

Interview Guest:

Julie Young is the Deputy Vice President of Education Outreach and Student Services for Arizona State University, and the CEO of ASU Prep Digital High School. She is the leading voice for revolutionizing K-12 online education on the global stage. As the founding President and CEO of Florida Virtual School (FLVS), Young and her team grew FLVS into a diversified, worldwide organization creatively serving over 2 million students in 50 states and 68 countries worldwide. Julie graduated with a MEd from the University of South Florida following her undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky.

https://www.asuprepdigital.org/leadership/julie-young/

Commentary of the Week:

Frederick Hess in EducationNext: Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools

Tweet of the Week:

News Links:

US News: Trump Calls on Congress to Pass Federal Tax Credit Scholarship

https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-02-04/trump-calls-on-congress-to-pass-federal-tax-credit-scholarship

CNBC: Teaching financial education in schools finally catches on

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/teaching-financial-education-in-schools-finally-catches-on.html

Next episode’s guest: Neal McCluskey, director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom, February 14, 2020.

Guest Co-Hosts:

Alisha Thomas Cromartie is a former six-term state legislator in Georgia. She was co-author of the state’s constitutional amendment to create a state charter authorizer, and author of the state’s intra-district transfer law. She is former Superintendent of Ivy Prep Schools in Atlanta. She is currently a speaker, author, CEO and host of “Fearless Chic,” a podcast for women. She tweets at @AlishaCromartie.

 

 

 

Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at FEE and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019). She is also an adjunct scholar at The Cato Institute and a regular Forbes contributor. Kerry’s research interests include homeschooling and alternatives to school, self-directed learning, education entrepreneurship, parent empowerment, school choice, and family and child policy. Her articles have appeared at The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, NPR, Education Next, Reason Magazine, City Journal, and Entrepreneur, among others. She has a master’s degree in education policy from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bowdoin College. Kerry lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children. Kerry tweets at: @kerry_edu.

Receive Our Updates!

Related Posts

Steven Wilson on Anti-Intellectualism in K-12 Education

/
Co-host Bob Bowdon talks with Steven Wilson, Founder and former CEO of Ascend Learning, a charter school network in Brooklyn, New York. They discuss the emergence of anti-intellectualism in K-12 schooling.

Jason Bedrick on Religious Freedom & Private School Autonomy

/
Bob and Cara talk with Jason Bedrick, EdChoice’s director of policy, about New York’s controversial “substantial equivalency” proposal that would give the state Department of Education oversight of school curricula at yeshivas and other private and parochial academies.

Dr. Lindsey Burke on LBJ’s True Education Legacy

/
Dr. Lindsey Burke of the Heritage Foundation talks with The Learning Curve co-host Bob Bowdon about her new book, The Not-So-Great-Society, co-edited with Jonathan Butcher, and why the LBJ era is an inflection point for federal intervention in local school policy.

NH Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut on State-Driven K-12 Reform

/
New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut joins "The Learning Curve" podcast this week, plus Bob & Cara break down the new NAEP results, and share education stories out of Denver and Detroit.

The Learning Curve: Andrew Campanella, President of National School Choice Week

/
This week on The Learning Curve, Bob talks with Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week and author of the new book, "The School Choice Roadmap: 7 Steps to Finding the Right School for Your Child."

Dr. Howard Fuller on School Choice & Presidential Politics

/
Cara and Bob talk withthe the great Dr. Howard Fuller, Distinguished Professor of Education, about his passionate activism on behalf of education reform, his concerns about the lack of support among Democratic presidential candidates for charter schools & more!

The Learning Curve: “Wilfred McClay on his new book, Land of Hope”

/
Wilfred McClay, University of Oklahoma Professor, discusses his new high school textbook, "Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story," that seeks to provide an account of this nation's rich and complex story that puts it in proper perspective, and that is both honest and inspiring.

This Week on “The Learning Curve”: Natalie Wexler on her new book, The Knowledge Gap

/
Bob & Cara talk with Natalie Wexler, author of "The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System–And How to Fix It," about the shift in K-12 education, even in the Common Core era, from an emphasis on academic content to empty skills and strategies.

The Learning Curve: National Education Podcast

“The Learning Curve” is where you’ll find straight talk about the nation’s hottest education stories - news and opinion from the schoolyard to the 2020 campaign trail.