High Schools are Becoming Global

Utah's Electronic High School cames online in 1994 and now serves roughly 57,000 students

[ClickPress, Wed Nov 08 2006] Utah has the oldest and largest online high school program in the country and Friday the State Board of Education gave leaders the green light to go forward in pursuing a project that would extend the program globally.

About 57,000 students have enrolled in the electronic high school. The number has been doubling each year since 2000 in the 12-year-old program.

Florida is a distant second, with just over 20,000 enrolled.

To capitalize on the Beehive State's program, Utah entrepreneurs proposed a partnership with Utah Electronic High School to create a second campus, the American Academy, that is a for-profit program targeting 18-to 30-year-olds who have not earned high school diplomas, as well as international students.

Utah high school students have something a pair of successful entrepreneurs want - access to the state's Electronic High School.

The businessmen want to buy access to the online high school's curriculum, sell it to adult and international students and tap a market they say is potentially worth millions. The men pitched their plan to the state Board of Education on Friday, which greeted it with guarded optimism.

"We're always looking for a revenue stream," said board member Mark Cluff of Alpine. "Let's look at this as a business."

The product Anthony E. Meyer and Paul Zane Pilzer hope to sell is a U.S. high school diploma. They envision an untapped market of adult and foreign students who want an actual diploma rather than a General Educational Diploma or international baccalaureate certificate. Rather than developing an online curriculum from scratch, the two want to offer potential students courses that already are proven and accredited.

Meyer and Pilzer first approached the board in June about starting The American Academy, a "second private campus" of Utah's online school.

The board requested a more concrete business plan, which the pair presented at Friday's meeting. The board agreed to the plan in theory and voted unanimously to study whether it's feasible, practical and legal.

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