"The Virginia Board of Education approved the state’s 15th lab school on Friday and allocated the rest of the state’s $75 million lab school fund. State leaders accelerated the approvals of lab school applications, as the fund can only be used until June 30, the last day of this fiscal year — a deadline imposed by the new two-year state budget that legislators finalized last month.

Lab schools, which are K-12 schools that partner with higher education institutions, are Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s signature school choice initiative. The schools are free and open to the public, set their own curricula and budgets, and are associated with their corresponding institution of higher education.

State leaders expect all 15 lab schools to be up and running by the 2025-26 school year. The lab school initiative is a historic expansion of nontraditional options for public school students in Virginia, which has only seven public charter schools. Neighboring states like North Carolina and Maryland each have more than 100 charter schools.

The approved lab schools will teach curriculums that cover an array of specialties from space to maritime to welding and hands-on apprenticeships, to addressing such issues as health care needs and helping prepare skilled workers for high-demand fields in their local areas.

The board, up against a tight deadline, approved 11 lab schools in the past three months while facing several hurdles," reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Photo: At Old City Hall in Richmond on Thursday, the Virginia Board of Education discusses the new performance categories for the state accountability system. AKASH PAMARTHY, TIMES-DISPATCH