On line learning remains one of the most powerful and transformative mediums in U.S. education, said Martha Leight, vice president of the Center for Digital Education.It's the second year in a row that Florida has been number 1 for virtual education, according to the center's survey.The center is a division of e-Republic, Inc., a national publishing, event and research company that looks at how technology is being used in public operations such as the schools.Florida has been a leader, with its state backed Florida Virtual School up and running for more than 10 years now. On line education in the state is growing, too. I detailed operation of the state's new full time k-12 on line school in a story today.

It's packing in kids who want to study at home, with 2,100 enrolled for its first year. While the Florida Virtual School the Center discusses in its survey offers a la carte courses for students who are studying at home or want to pick up extra courses beyond what they get in regular schools, the new program is full time school at home. Maybe statistics on it will show up in next year's Center report.

The survey says 27 states have on line learning programs run buy the states, and two others have programs not led by the state. Four others are working on setting up on line operations and the remainder have not cracked the book on virtual schooling. According to the survey, the top 10 states for on line education in rank order are. 1) Florida; 2) South Carolina; 3) New Mexico; 4) Hawaii; 5) Michigan; 6) Louisiana 7) Idaho; 8) Minnesota; 9) Oregon; and 10) Arkansas.