Turn on your computer; open your internet browser; enter a web address; log-in; begin typing.You have just condensed the usual 45 minutes it takes to wait at the bus stop, get to school and walk to your class into a one minute process.

If you are a ninth grade student in the 2013-2014 school year, this ordeal will earn you rank among a movement already teeming with Hoosiers, Alabamans and Floridians. You have just begun an online class that will be a mandatory graduation requirement for all Virginia students, an obligation The A-Blast feels is currently too demanding to be successful.

On April 4, Gov. Bob McDonnell signed into law a bill that would require all students, beginning with those who are currently seventh graders, to take an online course in order to graduate through one of Virginia’s 18 contracted virtual school providers.

This in its own right is problematic, placing the state’s historic responsibility to educate the public masses into the auspices of private companies. Although FCPS currently contracts BlackBoard, Inc. to connect students with teachers, it does not place the role of teaching in the hands of private contractors, but instead serves as a medium between students and FCPS teachers.

However, what is most bothersome about this reform in Virginia educational policy is the law’s status as an unfunded mandate. The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) does not have any plans to give funds to school districts that might require them in order to successfully implement the law.

This means that school districts with smaller budgets and outdated technology will have to divert funds from other priorities in their respective districts in order to appease this law.

While FCPS might not have a problem as one of the country’s largest and best school systems in accommodating the new mandate, southwestern Virginia school districts, with historically smaller populations and tighter budgets, would be hit with yet another hurdle to jump through as they are struggling to make ends meet.

The individual student will also have to face newfound hardships. Just as with any other curricular class, these online courses will assign homework and extracurricular projects that require work outside of class. The A-Blast recently compiled a profile of the school which reported that 12% of students have only one computer at home. Parents of students in this category would feel pressured to purchase new technology in order to allow for their students to complete work on a computer without competition from other members of the household. This places an undue financial burden on parents.

Virtual Virginia, one of Virginia’s online education providers currently in use, teaches regular and Advanced Placement (AP) classes. No International Baccalaureate (IB) classes are offered.

This raises concern for the unfunded mandate’s impact on IB schools such as AHS. The IB program has already met opposition in school in the form of traditional classes. One can only imagine the problems online education providers might meet in the pursuit of digitalizing IB classes. Would online providers charge IB schools a special fee to provide IB classes online? Since IB classes will inherently be less popular than AP classes in an online forum, online education providers might easily charge a fee.

Financial impact notwithstanding, this bill certainly takes a positive step in acclimating students to a digitalized world. However, this reform can certainly wait until local school districts, just as with all governmental bodies, recuperate from a comprehensive financial fiasco. Schools simply cannot afford the technology they would have to loan to students, or the technology they would have to update in their schools in order to meet the demands of the law.