Kentucky’s digital online public school celebrates a decade of service

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The Barren Academy of Virtual and Expanded Learning (BAVEL) is celebrating its tenth year of service, and the Bowling Green Daily News has a great article about the important services this totally online school provides to hundreds of young Kentuckians, allowing those students to complete a regular high school diploma when a variety of situations might otherwise make that scholastic accomplishment impossible.

BAVEL offers a full high school program that features readily available teachers. It can solve problems such as bullying in a really effective way.

About 70 percent of BAVEL’s students go on to postsecondary education.

The only problem I see here is that with thousands of Kentucky students still dropping out of school before graduation, I wonder why BAVEL’s enrollment isn’t much higher.

Part of the problem is that the school district where a prospective BAVEL student actually resides must agree to a district-to-district transfer to BAVEL, including the transfer of that student’s state education support dollars (SEEK money). With so many students going unserved, it seems adult greed in some school districts may be trumping the needs of some students. Those greedy districts would rather hold on to the student’s SEEK money until they drop out rather than let that cash follow the student to a better opportunity for success.

It is time for the Kentucky legislature to look into this problem. Kentucky needs to alter the rules so that a student, not his or her school district, gets to decide on BAVEL attendance.