As school districts nationwide cut back on essentials, three quarters of them plan to expand their digital offerings over the next three years, according to a new survey reported by the National Center for Education Statistics, the federal Education Department’s research arm, the Huffington Post reports. The new data [1] released Tuesday looks specifically at “distance education courses” in public schools: full-credit courses that are taught remotely through technology. The national survey, conducted in fall and winter of the 2010-2011 school year, found that 55 percent of 2,310 school districts had students enrolled in these courses, ninety-six percent of which were given at the high school level…