Silver Lining for Online Schooling

Like most California colleges and universities, Citrus College will be mostly online when school opens this fall, with the exception of courses that require clinical or lab-based learning in a physical setting.

Dr. Edward C. Ortell, Citrus College Governing Board member, writes that while this may "seem like one more dark cloud on the horizon," it comes with a couple silver linings.

First, students attending from home save the cost of transportation - one of the biggest expenses for community college students. The flexibility of online instruction allows students to organize their study and class times, thus maximizing work schedules, and students with children can avoid much, if not all, of the cost of daycare.

Also, taxpayers save by the school not needing to provide additional classrooms, or repeated sanitizing and cleaning of facilities and personal protective gear for faculty and staff.

- Brad Haugaard