Enrollment of Catholic school students in an online public school raises questions

Last spring, Katie Rivera's daughter came home from the St. Francis Parish School in Bakersfield with some unusual paperwork. The school was pushing parents to sign their children up for a "unique pilot program" taught entirely online and run by a public school district in Los Angeles County. Each student who enrolled in the Lennox Virtual Academy would get a free Chromebook computer to use at school, with access to online classes. All parents had to do was fill out the forms, authorizing St. Francis to share information about their finances and their children's health with the Lennox School District a hundred miles away. "This partnership is expected to bring many benefits for St. Francis students," Principal Kelli Gruszka wrote to parents.