Florida and Michigan lead, while Massachusetts lags behind
BOSTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / December 3, 2025 / A new book co-edited by national digital education leader Julie Young draws on best practices and multiple studies published by Pioneer Institute to recount three decades of advances in digital education and highlights the policies necessary for students to fully benefit from virtual schools. "Virtual Schools, Actual Learning: Digital Education in America" shows how online learning has evolved from a niche supplement to a core part of modern education -- and how state policy can either unlock or block its potential.
"Not every student is suited for learning in lockstep with their peers like they did in the Industrial Age, nor to the constraints of the traditional school day and year," said Julie Petersen, a co-editor of "Virtual Schools, Actual Learning: Digital Education in America" with Julie Young and Kay Johnson. "Virtual learning sets students free from the constraints of time, place and pace, and unbundles learning so students can choose the courses and formats they prefer -- or enroll in a fully online school if they like."
Students in virtual courses and schools can learn on their own schedules and at their own pace until they demonstrate mastery. Today, highly interactive and visual, data-driven platforms can detect small struggle points to personalize instruction with increasing precision.
Nearly 30 years ago, the Florida Virtual School -- where co-editor Julie Young served as founding President and CEO -- became the first public statewide virtual school, offering courses and a full educational experience to students across Florida and later globally. It was also the first to have a performance-based funding model tied to successful course completions. The school provided a path to reducing class sizes and offered hard-to-staff courses, foreign languages, and Advanced Placement offerings to rural students and others who might not otherwise be able to access them.
Over time, digital learning shifted from a complementary option to an integral part of many students' education -- and a full-time format for some. Students shift to online programs for varied reasons: escaping bullying at their school, addressing unmet academic needs, or seeking flexibility.
For some students, online learning is simply the "better-fit" option, whether for select courses or as a full-time pathway. A growing body of research shows that students in high-quality online learning programs can perform as well as -- and sometimes better than -- their counterparts in traditional schools. Students with special needs often choose online settings because increased pace flexibility and tailored support can lead to better outcomes.
"We're at the beginning of an explosion in education entrepreneurship -- and students are voting with their feet to move to more and more models that are untethered from the traditional calendar, classrooms, and courses," said Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute and author of the book's foreword.
Online learning has also proven critical during emergencies. Schools that had well-designed virtual learning models in place showed remarkable adaptability and resilience during the pandemic. ASU Prep -- a network of physical campuses and fully digital programs led by Julie Young as CEO at the time -- moved all 3,000+ students to online learning within a week.
"The lesson isn't to return to 2019 and pretend the pandemic never happened," Young said. "It's to build systems flexible enough to serve students no matter what disruption comes next, whether that's another health crisis, a natural disaster, or simply a student who can't learn in a traditional classroom."
Over the past three decades, some states have proactively built policy infrastructure to support innovative learning environments. Florida and Michigan stand out for introducing pivotal legislation and funding structures that have enabled virtual learning to take root and thrive, benefiting both students and schools seeking solutions. By contrast, other states constrained digital learning through heavy-handed regulations that hindered growth and quality, lacked high-level champions, limited public demand and awareness, and yielded political opposition from teacher unions and district and state leaders. In Massachusetts, for example, only two small statewide virtual schools are in operation today because of strict enrollment caps, limited funding, and persistent resistance from the bureaucracy.
To maximize the benefits of virtual education, policymakers must align regulations with the evolving landscape. Critical levers include vetting processes for providers, the form and amount of public funding, quality/accountability metrics, and online teacher preparation. Advocacy group ExcelinEd recommends a bottom-up approach in which stakeholders design the vision for blending digital and traditional learning. Virtual Schools, Actual Learning provides context, recommendations, and insights for leaders committed to expanding learning options that put students and families at the center.
Options are critical at a time when student achievement scores are ringing alarm bells. "Online learning is not a panacea, nor are traditional or even non-traditional classrooms, and that is the point," notes co-editor Kay Johnson. "Learning choices should be as diverse, plentiful, and imaginative as our students."
To learn more about the book or to order it today, visit www.pioneerinstitute.org. "Virtual Schools, Actual Learning" is also available on Amazon Kindle.
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SOURCE: Pioneer Institute
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