Just one year after it opened, the first online charter high school operated by the University of California has been closed.  UC officials said the closure was prompted by a reduction in funding, and a decision to focus more on developing high school curricula and less on teaching those courses.

“When these schools open, there are people knocking their doors down,” said Luis Huerta, an assistant professor at the Teachers College at Columbia University who has spent 12 years studying charter schools.

Huerta said there are about 120 online and home-school-based charter schools in California, up from about 25 a decade ago.

This article appeared in the July 31, 2007 edition of the Union-Tribune.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070731-9999-1m31uconline.html

Published Monday, Aug. 6, 2007