MADISON, Wis. -- By this time next year, students from across the country could be attending Madison schools online.

The Madison Metropolitan School District is developing a virtual campus and curriculum. The idea has been in the works for several years, but the district hopes to make it widely available for the 2006-2007 school year.

One Sun Prairie family said that they already use online education to home school nine of their 10 children, WISC-TV reported.

Parent Sharon Leonard said that she has nothing but glowing words for virtual schools. Her 7-year-old son, John, is currently enrolled in the Appleton School District’s Virtual kindergarten program.

"I like curriculum with a lot of diversity that's a bit challenging," said Sharon Leonard. "Not too heavy on the writing part, not lots of homework, not lots of extra assignments. I just want them to focus on the basics."

The other Leonard children, ages 4 to 11, aren’t officially enrolled in an online school, but have taken French, home economics, mythology, keyboarding and computer technology online.

"All your lessons are supplied for you and they're all put together for you," said Sharon Leonard. "You have to follow a lesson plan, so I do like that part of it. And you have the teacher support as well."

For John to go to Appleton's virtual school, the Leonards had to apply through open enrollment, which means John is considered an Appleton student, even though he lives in Sun Prairie.

The Appleton School District receives state aid for him. State aid is one factor driving the development of MMSD's virtual school, WISC-TV reported.

The district is trying to bring back state aid for the more than 400 students currently home-schooled in the district.

State aid can be more than $5,000 per student.

School board president Johnny Winston Jr. said the district could use that money in the budget while offering the latest education technology.

Winston said that he has been encouraging the district to follow through with virtual education since he was elected to the board.

MMSD Superintendent Art Rainwater said the district's virtual campus would do more than provide access for home schooling.

"One of the things we're working on is not just having full courses, but also having learning modules so that if I missed a part of biology, I could take that part of biology online and recapture the credit," said Rainwater.

MMSD already offers online classes for its alternative school and a few others for mainstream high school students.

Rainwater said that a full-fledged curriculum could also benefit currently enrolled students by offering more electives.

"There may be enough students in two of our high schools to have a German 4 class, but not enough in the two other high schools, so therefore we could create enough interest to use the online program," said Rainwater.

He also said the virtual campus could also be used to streamline teacher and staff training on specific topics.

But the Leonards aren't sure they would automatically switch to the MMSD virtual school.

"With online schools location doesn't matter, it's truly the curriculum," said Leonard. "If they have something that's really exciting with a lot of electives that my children would be interested in, then I would certainly look at that."

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Web site, there are currently 13 virtual schools in the state.

MMSD said development of the virtual campus has been funded through grants up to now. They hope to unveil a finalized curriculum by the beginning of the next school year.