Schoolteachers in Texas are flocking to a quick and cheap online master’s-degree program created by a partnership between Lamar University, in Beaumont, Tex., and a company run by a Dallas entrepreneur, Randy Best, The Dallas Morning News reports.

The online program offers students the opportunity to earn a master’s in school administration or teacher leadership in 18 months, and at less than half the cost of most other master’s-of-education programs in the state. Since the program began, in October, it has enrolled 1,800 teachers, most of whom receive incentives from their school districts for earning the degrees.

Under the unusual public-private deal, Lamar, a public university, oversees the program’s curriculum, instruction, and admissions process, while Mr. Best’s company, Higher Education Holdings, provides the marketing; the two entities share profits from the program, which costs students $4,950 each.

While some observers have questioned whether such a short program can adequately prepare educators and administrators, it has been endorsed by several Texas school districts.

“So many teachers are suddenly interested,” said Mr. Best, a banker and prominent figure in for-profit education. In 2005 he bought a struggling Roman Catholic college in suburban Chicago and transformed it into a for-profit teachers college, the American College of Education.

“Why would it be that this level of interest would occur if it had not been a great unmet demand?” he said. —Paula Wasley