An online degree program is different from a traditional degree program in more than just the way you attend classes: It also requires a different kind of commitment from you as a student. This September, my Administration announced $123 million in new funding to dozens of school districts, nonprofit organizations, and State educational agencies across the country as part of the Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) competitive grant program.

In California, a so-called “taxpayer revolt” and well-financed political campaign led to the passage of something referred to as “The People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation.” While the benefits and harm of that law can forever be debated, one fact about Public Schools is beyond debate: since the 1960’s when California schools were highly ranked among the nation’s Public Schools, there has been a steady decline since The People’s Initiative was made law.

That was not always so, for from the beginning of this country until the present day advancing the cause of Public School education has been strongly opposed by parents with powerful political backing who have steadfastly resisted turning their children over to teachers for their moral education.

In the Winter 2004-05 Occupational Outlook Quarterly, The US Department of Labor reported that “In 2003, workers who had a bachelor’s degree had median weekly earnings of $900, compared with $554 a week for high school graduates-that’s a difference of $346 per week, or a 62 percent jump in median earnings.” These figures are a bold statement that the advantage of a college degree is its increased earning power.

Many teachers might respond: “Come spend a day in my shoes.” For the typical middle school teacher, for instance, that involves teaching about 120 kids every day, monitoring hundreds of them noisily eating lunch, corralling them all at day’s end to their waiting school buses, and then grading the 120 or so assignments and tests collected during the day.