Contact: Tom Bradbury
(404) 879-5544
Released: 6/28/2005
SREB/BellSouth Foundation Alliance for Virtual Schools
NEW ORLEANS - In partnership with the BellSouth Foundation, the Southern
Regional Education Board is launching a new alliance to help member states
increase middle grades and high school students' access to quality academic
courses through state-supported virtual schools.
Through a multiyear grant, the new alliance will help states focus on key policy
issues, including quality online courses, quality teachers and funding. It also
will provide extensive information and resources that states can share as they
address the instructional, management and technical issues that are essential to
the successful creation of a state virtual school.
The grant was announced here today by Louisiana Governor and SREB Chair
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. “This grant will send a message to the students, as
well as to parents and teachers, about preparing for a world and society
different from the past,” said Governor Blanco. “We are leading the nation in
state virtual high school programs, and we want to keep it that way.”
Many state virtual schools in the U.S. are in the SREB region, and 14 of the
16 SREB states will have a virtual school by the end of 2005. A key reason for
this leadership is the states' ability to work together to solve problems and
share resources.
"Bellsouth has had a long history as a partner to education and working with
the SREB," said Dick Anderson, Chairman of the Board, BellSouth Foundation. "And
we look forward to working with SREB through this new alliance to help close the
achievement gap by expanding student choice and access to quality online
instruction."
About the BellSouth Foundation
The BellSouth Foundation is an endowed trust of BellSouth Corporation that is
devoted to education in the communities served. Since its creation in 1986, the
Foundation has funded over 622 grants and operated numerous special initiatives,
with a total investment of more than $56 million. For more information about the
BellSouth Foundation, please visit
http://www.bellsouthfoundation.org.
The Southern Regional Education Board, America's first interstate compact for
education, is headquartered in Atlanta. Its 16 member states are Alabama,
Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
Virginia and West Virginia. For more information, see
www.sreb.org.
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