North Carolina’s virtual high school is surging in popularity, broadening opportunities for students in the state’s far reaches to control how, where and what they learn.

This fall, more than 15,000 students are taking classes online through the N.C. Virtual Public School, up from 8,800 last spring. Administrators expect to enroll 20,000 students in spring classes.

Online instruction has become even more important this year, because tight school budgets have led to disappearing high school courses. In some districts, online courses have helped blunt the impact of budget cuts, allowing students to take classes their districts can no longer afford.

The program can give children in Burgaw and Indian Trail some of the same opportunities as students in the big-city districts of Raleigh and Charlotte-Mecklenburg

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