The United States government allocates $1.3 Trillion dollars for public, private education and the majority of this funding comes from state & local governments. There are 98,000 K12 schools and 9500 colleges or universities. In the US, around 56 Million kids attend public schools and around 6 Million go to private schools. Higher education is a different ball game as several international students join the mix as our universities are the best in the world!
Regarding funding funding, a major share of our property tax bill goes to support, maintain and promote K12 schools in county governments. The Federal government also provides assistance through several aids, grants, and programs, like ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), that help students with disabilities. Most grants incorporate important reporting requirements for states to comply to receive funding.
USAC administers a school and libraries program (also known as e-rate) that provides discounts of up to 90% to help eligible districts obtain telecommunication and internet access. Billions of dollars are allocated to deserving school districts. This program is very transparent and has been managed effectively for the past 20 years. Organizations like Educause promote K-20 education partnering with public schools, state colleges and assist those who lead, manage and deploy IT to advance higher education.
Partnership with GaETC
GA Educational Technology Consortium is a non-profit organization and undertakes several programs during the year to promote innovation, creativity among students and support instructional technology. Sonline is a proud sponsor of GaSTC (GA Student Technology Competition) over the last 4 years and we built the portal and continue to support the solution that benefits more than 1000 schools in the state of GA. It is our immense pleasure to work with the RESA organizations and leaders of public & private K12 schools that are committed to growth of GA education.
Post Covid-19 Needs
Digital transformation is evident in the US education industry for the past 2 decades. In the post Covid-19 world, we see smart classrooms, video based instruction, e-learning, e-books, tablets, proctored exams, customized LMS (learning management system), Online knowledge portals, blended learning, social learning and so much more.
Typical classroom pictures with a chalkboard, on-premise instruction through a teacher, and large, bounded books are things of the past. The role of a teacher has changed forever. Information & Instructional technology has evolved to support Education and some of the software applications include Student Information System (SIS), ERP applications for school administration, Google Classrooms, Edukadu, Moodle, Cafeteria management, Travel tracker, Incident management and more.
IT Managers in schools struggle to manage the myriad of applications along with the primary focus to ensure 99.9% availability of systems to support instruction. During these covid-19 times, support for e-learning has become the biggest concern as some rural county schools are really struggling to cope up with the infrastructure requirements. Sonline provides the right assistance and serves as the extended IT team for many school counties, private schools and colleges. Our knowledge gained through working with K12 over the years is foundational and in various situations, IT staff are stretched so much that they don’t have time to educate vendors from scratch.
Technology Support, Mobile Apps & Dashboards
We have assisted numerous K12 Public Schools and private institutions in various ways including:
- Support and training for staff members and leaders with SQL Server, Infrastructure best practices, and Cyber Security
- Google Looker based Covid-19 Dashboards
- Design and build of a collaborative websites
- Live event mobile app to organize and track attendees
- ETL / SSIS / FTE Reporting towards compliance and quickly address other third-party application integration needs
- Visualize SIS (Student Information) data through BI Analytics / Dashboard projects utilizing Power BI, and Tableau
- Educational workshops, support, and career advice for high school students
What are the new initiatives in your school district?
