Struggling Economies and Distance Education

We tend to stress the convenience factor when discussing why distance education is such a terrific way to study (either at high-school or college level).  But the recent downturn in the economy has given us a new reason to love distance education: it’s friendlier to the budgets of college students and to the taxpayers who fund public education.

For starters, an online school almost always costs less to the student.  For instance, if you’re pursuing your degree through an online school, you’ll only have to pay for tuition and books.  Other costs, particularly those associated with living on campus, are eliminated.  Likewise, the expense of traveling to the school in the first place won’t apply to you.

But even at the high school level, the economy is arguing in favor of an online school. When gasoline prices starting shooting up, in addition to the cost of feeding students at high schools,  many school districts started considering dropping one day of school per week.  Students would simply attend class four days, and have an extra hour or two added to each day.  These districts would do wise to consider, however, that high schools which have adopted a distance learning approach have been saving on the gasoline and food expenses for quite some time.  Few school districts have yet embraced this approach, yet the few who are experimenting with it are finding it promising.

Online Continuing Education is also growing rapidly.

Incidentally, there are already all distance-learning high schools available, although in most cases, these will cost more money than they will save.  Still, many parents find the convenience and the control over their kids’ education worth the investment.  And it’s actually less expensive than a private education.

In fact, for the most part, it’s hard to argue with the fact that online education saves money.

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