Online Learning: What the Khan Academy can teach lawmakers - John Butcher, East Valley Tribune

As online resources like this become more available, lawmakers around the country should make sure students can use these sites to get extra help — or get ahead. Instead of trying to sift through every online class and decide which is adequate or require students to have a certain amount of “seat time” with every class, schools can test for subject mastery after a student has taken a course on the Web. If a student is ready to move on to the next level, it doesn’t matter where they took the course. It’s time to leave behind requirements for how long students sit at their desks and let students earn credits from any class. Regardless of whether a child takes a class in a traditional classroom or online, so long as they can show that they have mastered the material, that’s what really matters. http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/opinion/columnists/article_433025e2-1d65-11e2-90d4-0019bb2963f4.html