• Allow students to graduate early and offer them a college scholarship equal to the amount the state would have spent on the last year of high school.

• Ensure state education dollars follow the needs of students so parents can select the best possible educational options for their children.

• Create an Indiana Charter School Board to authorize new charters across the state.

• Allow private higher education institutions to apply to the State Board of Education to authorize new charters.

• Increase accountability for all charter authorizers. Only let the best open, and close poor performing charters.

• Expand virtual charter schools to reach underserved students and to fill gaps in the traditional system.

• Eliminate caps on charters and help them access safe and appropriate public facilities.

• Grant schools and communities more authority to convert failing schools to charters.

For the rest of the article, go to Bennett eyes reform for education.

That said, any Indiana student can be considered for enrollment, she said.

Connections Academy has 18 public schools in 17 states.

The organization also has a nationally accredited private virtual school called National Connections Academy that serves students in states in which the virtual public-school option is not available, Laystrom said.

Indiana Connections Academy is the second virtual charter school in Indiana, said Lauren Auld, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Education.

Hoosier Academies, a combination virtual and bricks and mortar school that opened in 2008-09, was the first.

For the rest of the article, go to Indiana virtual school to enroll students