Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX - Some Arizona children could soon be getting schooled not going to school, at least not full time.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to start creating a "digital curriculum'' for public schools. Senate President Ken Bennett said this would be the first step to an optional e-learning system for the state.

SB 1512 has an up-front cost of $5.9 million, with the prospects of more dollars in the future. But Bennett said the plan, if successful, could save money: Fewer students in class means fewer expensive schools to build.

Bennett said, though, the real beneficiaries would be children.

Not everyone was convinced. Sen. Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox, questioned whether it is in the best interest of students to spend more time at home and less time interacting directly with teachers and other students.

"A live teacher, to a student, is a friend,'' she said, who can listen to a youngster's concerns and guide that child. Arzberger said a classroom also "teaches order and discipline (and) prepares a child to live in society.''

But Bennett, a former president of the state Board of Education, said the plan would allow students to go to school, perhaps for a few hours a week, while pursuing course work at home.

Bennett said the current model of education - bringing students together to teach them all at the same rate - is outdated. This plan, he said, would "allow a more customized education for children without having to gather them in one location and allowing them to move at their own pace.''

Then there is the financial concern.

Bennett said there are about a million youngsters in the state's K-12 system, with more than 30,000 added each year. He said perhaps 10,000 youngsters at the start might opt into an e-learning system and receive some or nearly all of their education electronically at home.

"If we didn't have 10,000 kids sitting in school chairs, that's 10 or 15 schools at $25 million each that you would not have to build,'' he said, money that could be spent in classrooms for other students whose parents decide they want that experience, or to upgrade technology.

And that would just be the start.

"I don't know what the percentage would be of students that ultimately would be interested in something like this,'' Bennett said. But he said there would be "huge savings'' if, in a decade, 10 percent of Arizona students were being taught electronically "instead of having to house them in schools, transport them and feed them.''

Bennett that if students can move at their own pace through public school they might be able to complete what now takes 12 years in traditional schools in just 10.

"And we're not having to pay for the last year or two and they can spent their 11th and 12th year starting into their college curriculum if they're interested in doing so,'' he said.

Bennett said this is not a back-door way of providing state funds for parents who want to home school their children. In fact, he said, it actually might provide an alternative for parents who don't want their children enrolled full time in public schools but want something more than they can teach their youngsters at home.

The measure now goes to the full Senate.

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