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Increased popularity of distance learning universities has motivated a younger student population to learn online. In Colorado, a growing percentage of students are utilizing distance learning by attending a school outside of their home district or online. The term used to describe these students has been "choicing out," or deciding for one reason or another not to attend a public school within the district where they live. Over 66,000 Colorado students are "choicing out" this fall, around 8 percent of the state's total student population. Ten years ago in 2001, only 3 percent of students were attending schools outside of their district. State laws in Colorado allow parents to send their child to any public school in the state that has room to accommodate them, as long as the parents can provide transportation. Many have criticized this law, claiming that it is unfair to low-income families who are unable to drive their children to school or pay to arrange alternate transportation. But following the trend set by distance learning universities, many elementary through high school programs are now offered online and transportation is no longer an issue. One national online program, for example, is run out of rural Julesburg, Colorado at the state's northeastern tip. Currently, 260 students attend classes on-site and an additional 1,527 are enrolled online. The online program is offered through the Insight School of Colorado, which is run by the same company that operates distance learning universities like the University of Phoenix. Distance learning programs, while embraced by students and parents, often create intense competition between school districts. When a student chooses one district over another, his or her state funding travels to the chosen district as well. For this reason, school administrators aim to keep enrollment high but are often unable to compete with districts that offer online programs or programs which combine a mix of online and in-person courses. Shawn Ehnes is Julesburg school district's superintendent. When Insight began operating three years ago and gaining 500 students a year, Ehnes advised neighboring superintendents that they shouldn't fear losing students to online schools. But that's exactly what happened. This fall, Julesburg received $12 million in state funding. Of this, $10 million is for online students. Of the district's move online, Ehnes said that "When we decided to go online, it was with the realization that small rural communities are dying and slowly losing kids and jobs and people. We wanted to begin the process of identifying alternative, outside-the-box ways of generating revenue and maintaining curriculum resources here."

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Colorado's new education rating system has given high marks to the on-site schools within Julesburg district, but the online program received a failing grade. The district has been identified with "priority improvement" status and will be required to submit its reform plan to be approved by the state's education department. Poor performance among online students could be that many of them were first unsuccessful in a traditional school, and turned to online learning as an alternative option. But, Ehnes is optimistic about the second chance given to these students through the online program, modeled afterdistance learning universities, and feels the state would be in much worse shape without it.

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