"The Online Learning Imperative: A Solution to Three Looming Crises in Education," written by Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia, and Robert Rothman, senior fellow at the Alliance for Excellent Education, makes a succinct case for online learning as an essential tool for our nation's schools.

"Currently, K–12 education in the United States is dealing with three major crises," the authors write, "each of which on its own is capable of wreaking havoc on schools and communities around the nation, but together are an all-out perfect storm." The three crises are:

* The growing mismatch between future workplaces needs and current levels of educational achievement;
* Declining local, state, and federal revenues creating a funding cliff;
* A looming teacher shortage.

Calling on the nation to "turn crisis into reality," Wise and Rothman advocate online learning as a solution for education reform efforts in a time of difficult budgets. According to the Issue Brief:

The number of students taking advantage of this learning opportunity is growing rapidly; K–12 online learning enrollments in school districts was 1,030,00 in school year 2007–2008, up from 700,000 just two years earlier. The authors of Disrupting Class predict that even without policy direction, one half of high school classes will be online within ten years.

Their conclusion: "The goal of enabling all young people to gain the knowledge and skills they need to succeed—resulting in much higher high school and postsecondary school graduation rates—requires the United States to think creatively and expand the use of online technology in education. As technology has revolutionized the way Americans get news, communicate, listen to music, shop, and do business, now is the time for American students in thousands of underperforming classrooms to realize the same gains."

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