Fifth Third goes to Jupiter, as in Florida, to land a virtual school

Fifth Third Processing Solutions Tuesday signed an agreement to provide card processing for Vschoolz, a virtual school based in Jupiter, Fla.

Fifth Third will integrate its card-acceptance service into the Vschoolz's digital school system, officials of both companies announced.

Vschoolz is a fully accredited K-to-12 online school. The school's agreement with Fifth Third provides a streamlined and simplified merchant account application, giving other schools an easy way to connect to the virtual school market.

"Our new vision for online public education includes reaching out to critically cash-strapped districts and failing private schools with a cost-cutting platform and curriculum that allows each school to tailor the system to their specific characteristics," Steve Miller, president of Vschoolz, said in a statement.