Epic Charter school has its critics, but amid the coronavirus pandemic, as teachers, students and parents worry about their districts’ ability to go virtual if the classroom environment isn’t safe, Epic is looking more and more like a palatable option to some.
Though coronavirus cases in Oklahoma continue to rise, the state’s Board of Education is not expected to issue a statewide closure of school buildings like it did four months ago.
The chamber claimed that if Epic’s management company were forced to give up financial records it would set a precedent for any other private companies that do business with the government.
The information provided by Wilkinson and the virtual charter school board to Sharp is a central part of a libel lawsuit Epic filed against Sharp last year.
This is what it looks like when one of the hungriest states in the nation experiences an economic crisis of historic proportions, when more than 154,000 Oklahomans have filed unemployment claims and thousands of jobs seemed to vanish overnight at hotels, restaurants and in the oil fields.
Epic virtual charter school has grown into one of the largest school systems in the state but it has also become one of the largest producers of transfers, sending thousands of students in and out of schools across Oklahoma throughout the academic year.
The confinement of inmates to their cells in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 has also meant the pause of classes for thousands of students in Oklahoma prisons who were working on degrees and vocational certificates.
Gov. Kevin Stitt will have nearly $40 million in emergency education stimulus funds to spend in the coming months and the state Department of Education would like him to focus on closing the digital divide, especially in rural communities.
