Digital Social Hour
Revolutionizing Education: VR Schools and Parental Power | Erika Donalds DSH #1129
Mon, 20 Jan 2025
Revolutionizing education is here! 🎓✨ Join Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour as he chats with Erika Donalds, CEO of Optima Ed, about how VR schools like Optima Academy Online are transforming learning and putting power back into the hands of parents. 🕶️📚 From immersive VR classrooms that take you to the moon 🌕 to ancient Rome 🏛️, to the benefits of universal school choice and personalized education plans, this episode is packed with valuable insights on the future of education. 💡 Learn how free market principles, innovative tech, and parental empowerment are shaping a new era in K-12 and beyond. Erika also dives into the challenges with student loans, standardized testing, and why breaking down bureaucratic barriers is critical for giving kids the education they deserve. 🙌 Don't miss out—watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets! 📺🚀 Hit that subscribe button and be part of the conversation shaping the future of learning. Tune in now for this eye-opening episode on education reform, VR learning, and parental power! 💬✨ #schoolchoicetexas #schoolchoiceflorida #floridaschoolchoice #schoolchoiceweek #localcontrol CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:40 - Department of Education Overview 05:00 - ProLon Diet Benefits 06:35 - Homeschooling Advantages 13:02 - Standardized Testing Explained 17:49 - Federal Education Funding Allocation 20:00 - Future Plans for Erika Donalds APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Erika Donalds https://www.instagram.com/erikadonalds SPONSORS: Prolon: http://prolonlife.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/
Chapter 1: What is universal school choice?
But then I pay for him to be a homeschool extension student and do sports at a local private school and learn at home, which is where he learns best.
Okay, Erica Donalds here, guys. Faculty at the Leadership Institute, CEO of OptimaEd. Thanks for joining us.
I'm so happy to be here. Thanks.
We're going to talk education right now.
My favorite topic.
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Chapter 2: How does personalized education benefit homeschooling?
It's a much needed topic these days. Department of Education is... Trump wants it gone, basically, right?
Thank goodness. He is, of course, not the first Republican to say that he's going to get rid of the Department of Education. But as we know, Trump likes to keep his promises. The promises made, promises kept.
And I think he has a real chance of actually doing it, if not completely eliminating it, streamlining it and putting more power back into the hands of parents where it belongs and block granting some of those powers also to the states.
Yeah. What are the chances this goes through this time? Actually, who's tried to get rid of it in the past?
Oh, all the way back. to the Reagan administration, really literally right after it was created, they tried to or wanted to shut it down and they have not been successful over the past 40 years. Despite the abysmal performance of the department as a whole, there's nothing that you can point to that says that it has been successful in its mission.
Certainly not to increase academic performance of our students. That has been the worst in the history of our country, really. And the most recent test scores being the largest drop in math achievement that we've ever seen in the fourth and eighth grades.
When it comes to what Secretary Cardona did as Secretary of Education right now, presided over this FAFSA debacle, which maybe some of your generation has been affected by that. Far fewer students are going to college.
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Chapter 3: What are the challenges with standardized testing?
And a lot of people attributed that to not being able to get financial aid simply because the Department of Education can't even run a form on a website and get people the student loans that they need.
It's a process. We just paid off my fiance's student loans. And I wanted to get rid of it ASAP because the interest and just the anxiety from it. A lot of students are still having loans into their 30s and 40s.
Listen, we just paid off our student loans not long ago, my husband and I. We're grateful that we had the opportunity to use them because we've been able to be successful. But certainly we had a mission from growing up in poverty, both of us, that we needed to have jobs that actually helped us pay back our student loans.
Right.
Chapter 4: How is federal education funding allocated?
Unfortunately, so many students are taking out loans, and they're getting degrees in areas that aren't going to give them a return on their investment, then they can't pay them back and the taxpayers are the ones who are putting the belt.
Absolutely. Do you think tuition prices with most universities is too high right now?
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's from subsidizing from the government. Just like healthcare prices are too high. Why? Because it's not paid by you and I as consumers. We don't pay directly. Students don't pay directly. And so therefore, you have inflation of prices. And then you have a misallocation of those resources.
Chapter 5: What is the future of VR education?
So a physics degree is the same cost as an art degree or gender studies degree that does not pay and give you the same return on investment. I would like to see the private sector back in student loans and giving loans to students based on the return that they will get from that degree and their ability to pay it back when they get a job in the private sector. And so we'll see if that happens.
I hope so. And President Trump has certainly made some promises to the American people. I know that he will want to keep them. And Secretary McMahon, if she's confirmed, will be on that mission. But it also requires some cooperation from Congress. And we know that's going to be a challenge.
And that's been an issue this week on the CR stuff.
Needless to say, you know, the government's staying open, but I think it's going to reverberate to see how much of Trump's agenda is actually going to be able to get done if Congress is going to operate this way.
Yeah. I remember my brother went to Rutgers and it was about 7,000 a year at the time in state. I went 10 years later, it was about 14. So it doubled in 10 years.
Did the value of that degree double in 10 years? Right.
Not even close. It probably didn't go up at all, to be honest, because inflation never matches the salary increases.
Exactly. And so I think not just in higher education, but K-12, where I'm really passionate about school choice, we need free market principals at work in both our K-12 and our higher education environments. And that's where you're going to see lower prices, more innovation, higher quality, and more accessibility for the greater number of people. We don't see that in either space right now.
And that's why, you know, America was founded on capitalism, on free market principles, but we don't have that in education. And that's why we don't see the quality that we deserve as Americans.
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Chapter 6: How do innovation and free market principles shape education?
Back in the States, but most importantly, in the hands of consumers, which are the parents. Parents need to have the agency. And that means the funding and the ability to direct those resources where they see fit, where they...
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They see a value for their children to get not only the best education and in terms of academic performance, but we see a lot of families opting out of the public schools because of safety concerns, because of misalignment with their values at home. And they should be able to make that decision for their children.
But we need to put those funds in the hands of parents to be able to vote with their feet, really.
What are your thoughts on homeschooling?
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Chapter 7: What role do parents play in educational choices?
I love homeschooling. I love that parents can be empowered to homeschool. And I want to see that be given more opportunity. In Florida, we have an amazing program because we have universal school choice and universal education scholarship accounts. Homeschool families can now access what we're calling a personalized education plan.
They get $8,000 to $9,000 and they can use that to buy their curriculum to... add additional tutoring or other services. They can even pay for sports. My son who learns at home in the world's first VR school, that's Optima Ed. And we should definitely talk more about that.
So he learns in VR in most of his courses, but then I pay for him to be a homeschool extension student and do sports at a local private school. So he really gets the best of both worlds. He can do his clubs and sports amongst other students at a private school and learn at home, which is where he learns best.
Wow. I need to learn more about this VR school. I never heard of that before.
Optima Academy Online is the world's first virtual reality school. We're in our third year. This is really the pride of what I have done with School Choice because we're in 13 different states where public funding is now available for students to take courses in virtual reality. And it's all classical traditional education, but it's accredited. So Students can go to our courses.
They're going to earn credit for it towards graduation. It's K to 12. But the best thing about it is the immersive style of education. And young people get it right away. You know, if you're learning about the lunar landing, where better to learn it from standing on the moon with your classmates, magic school bus style. If you're learning about ancient Rome, you can go there.
You can be there while you're learning about it.
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Chapter 8: How does immersive learning in VR transform education?
That's cool.
One of my favorite demonstrations we do is about the water cycle where we have a group project, which not everyone likes, but these girls are spawning a cloud and the rain and moving the cloud over the mountains and showing in three dimensions with the assets that we've built the water cycle.
how much more they're going to remember the water cycle than if they're filling it out on a ditto sheet, right? Or filling in the blanks somewhere. So that immersive learning that virtual reality provides is really transforming education. I'm really excited about it.
Because a lot of people are visual learners.
Yes, and or they learn by experiencing.
Right.
And you won't forget it when you travel to that location. In fact, my oldest son went to Greece as one of his senior trips. And he was showing us the pictures of the Parthenon and other areas of Greece. And my son, who'd been there in VR, he's like, oh, I've been there. I've been there in VR. I love it.
It gave me chills because when you are immersed in that environment, until you put on a headset and actually experience it, it's really hard to explain to people. But you feel like you've been there. You feel like you've been with other people when you've been with other people in VR versus Zoom school where it's a checkerboard of faces. So OptimaAcademy.online, people can learn more.
You can see if your state covers the cost of the tuition, but otherwise it's very affordable.
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