http://www.thenation.com/article/164651/how-online-learning-companies-bought-... This well-done article reveals some of the strategies corporations and educational lobbyists are using to grow the practice (and the profit) of online education. A few states, Florida and Idaho, have already passed laws requiring all public school students take at least one online course. The research shows virtual schools don't perform well, but promoters don't care much for research, as this passage from the article reveals: "Rather than 'intellectualize ourselves into the [education reform] debate...is there a way that we can get into it at an emotional level?' Berman asked. 'Emotions will stay with people longer than concepts.' He then answered his own question: 'We need to hit on fear and anger. Because fear and anger stays with people longer. And how you get the fear and anger is by reframing the problem.' Berman's glossy ads, which have run in Washington, DC, and New Jersey, portray teachers unions as schoolyard bullies. One spot even seems to compare teachers to child abusers."