A huge concern is cost. The virtual school is free (to us). The state pays the curriculum provider (k12.com in our case) way too much for what is essentially homeschooling material that is mediocre at best. Then the virtual school itself (a separate entity to k12.com) has its own staff and teachers that provide a combination of help and hindrance for no net gain. If only the state would give us a fraction of that budget directly to us to cover our own homeschooling costs, but that won't happen. So to homeschool independently we'd have to pay $1k per kid per year? $2k? More? With 3 kids and one 5-fig income, the costs could seriously carve into our budget. It could be money very well spent, or it could go badly. The cost-benefit analysis has to beat our current "free, and almost tolerable". Or maybe it's worse than "almost tolerable" and we just have to homeschool and figure out how to pay for it (save less, work more).
I have a friend homeschooling in California who, for the imposition of an annual meeting with a teacher (who has apparently been helpful if anything to date; she has had no trouble with using her choice of materials) and doing the standard state tests, gets what sounds like a considerable contribution to the cost of homeschooling. From her experience, that sounds like a sweet spot, which does exist!
