As time goes by, as I learn more about cyber charters, I become more convinced that they are legal fraud.
The last time I wrote something critical about cyber charters, a day or so ago, it was because Pennsylvania approved four more, even though the ones it has get terrible ratings, terrible test scores, terrible everything.
Not surprisingly I received several comments from people who said they are parents of children in cyber charters, and they are very happy.
Right.
And then I saw this article on Twitter a few minutes ago. The FBI is investigating the head of one of the first cyber charters in Pennsylvania.
This guy is usually written up as a great success story, a nationally recognized leader in cyber schooling, an educator who realized that there was something better than a brick-and-mortar school.
Yeah, I guess there is, when your cyber charter is collecting $100 million in revenues every year.
The politicians authorizing these money machines should hang their heads in shame.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Once again Louisiana is right up there with the worst. Cyber Charter applications open today! Now all those kids “trapped” in C,D, and F schools will be able to take courses online instead. Oops – that requires a computer and internet access, doesn’t it?
http://businessreport.com/article/20120713/BUSINESSREPORT0112/120719876/-1/daily-reportPM
Makes me wonder who these cyber schools are really going to enroll…
The kids will get the computers, and the cyber charters will get full tuition for each child.
And the kids will get a lousy education.
My child’s virtual school provides a computer and reimburses the family for their internet access for the school year.
I think the education the child receives will depend on the program chosen, the educational level of the parent and commitment level of both the parent and child.
While what you have uncovered about the the financial background of these companies does make me uncomfortable, I don’t see it as proving that they provide a lousy education.
Diane, what are you basing your reference to “lousy education” on? Do you have any data that we can read about? The cyber charter school referenced above (implicitly) has met AYP for the last 3 years and hopes to do the same this year. 37% of there students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, suggesting that many of these students had trouble with the PSSAs in their home district, causing them to seek out alternatives. In this new environment, they are collectively meeting state standards.
I base my judgment on the CREDO analysis of charter school performance in Pennsylvania, which found that students in cyber charters perform worse than those in either brick-and-mortar charter schools or public schools. http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/PA%20State%20Report_20110404_FINAL.pdf
Why don’t you read this?
Let’s apply, not knowing what will be offered. Kinda like the fundraisers at a school carnival, except that’s legit, pay your $1.00 and reach into the grab bag! You get what you get.
Diane, you wrote that the “this guy is usually written up as a great success story,,,” But the link you provide was to a bio on the website of the school he directs. I don’t know whether it’s a good or a bad school. But what’s the evidence that he is “usually written up as a great success story…”? I readily acknowledge that there are some charters that make very poor use of money (as there are some district public schools.)
I’ve also heard some very compelling stories from youngsters bullied at large traditional district schools who love their on-line schools. I don’t think it’s definitive. But I am not prepared to condemn all on-line schools. Do you think all cyber schools (whether district run or chartered) should be closed?
How about this, Joe? Nick Trombetta was honored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Education earlier this spring: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/university-of-pittsburgh-honors-pa-cyber-founder-dr-nick-trombetta-143715806.html
He was honored for “his outstanding accomplishments”
I recall Bill Bennett saying that K12 online schools would be good for kids who are bullied.
I think there are good reasons to take online courses, if a teacher is not available (for example, in physics or a foreign language).
I think all for-profit online schools should be closed.
As a rule, I am dubious about all online schools for young children because children learn best with teachers and in contact with other human beings.
I agree that there should not be for-profit online schools. Schools should never be allowed to profit off the education of children at the k-12 level. Especially, they should not get taxpayer money. Corporations are just too unregulated to be trusted with the lives of children. It is just wrong and immoral. I feel the same way about hospitals and prisons, really any human service organization. If a group deals with people’s lives directly it should not be done for profit although they can certainly have vendors for supplies and equipment.
However, I can see some value in going to school online for select students. Those would be some who are so highly gifted that the gifted teacher cannot keep up with them, especially where a self contained gifted program is not available; some high functioning autistic people or people with Aspergers whose disabilty makes them unable to deal with group situations; professional children—athletes, actors, musicians; those who travel extensively with their parents and some children of migrants; and those who live in rural areas whose schools are unable to provide the variety of Honors and AP classes the students need. In this case, the online work would be part time. I could also see it for kids with medical issues that keep them from going to school regularly, such as those with porfiria or severe immune system disorders and temporarily for those who have to have numerous, closely spaced surgeries.
However, online schooling should not be an excuse to avoid proper special education classes, including self contained classes, and should not be used at all for those who are mentally retarded, multiply disabled or simply medically fragile or who have g-tubes, trachs, or catheters. Just those who are actually in danger in a group environment. Also, non-verbal high functioning autistics who use AAC but look and act very strangely would probably be better able to demonstrate what they know in an online environment. These are people who may appear to be profoundly retarded but are actually brilliant. They often have to have a great deal of time to express themselves in their eccentric way and a non-synchronous online education would likely be best for them.
I can also see online classes being used to help students catch up if they have gotten behind and possibly in some imprisonment situations. I cannot see using it below the high school level. Younger children absolutely need interaction with peers and a real teacher.
Online education works well at the college level. I did work toward my Ed.S. online and loved it except when I did not understand some technical concepts. An undergrad might be cheated out of something going to school online however and should probably only take their junk courses online to get them over with (math, English, etc.) and their professional courses taken on campus.
Trombetta has been under investigation before. I’ve compiled a few articles about him and his Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School @ http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/07/pennsylvania-cyber-charter-school.html
Just one example: “Founder of Cyber Charter School in Beaver County Quits Post.” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA), 6/16/2007 (article no longer available online)
Excerpt:
…Nick Trombetta is stepping down as superintendent of the Midland School District and as president of the National Network of Digital Schools, a management consulting firm.
He will remain chief operating officer of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. A state grand jury continues to investigate allegations of double billing, excessive management fees, questionable payments to building contractors and misuse of tax dollars at the cyber school, which has more than 6,000 students…
There was one other investigation, and nothing was found. Investigations are started based on the claims of individuals with alleged evidence. Being investigated does not imply anything. It’s part of our government system. Since charter schools are in the public domain, there are people with political objectives that may choose to collect alleged evidence and force a government agency to conduct an investigation. It means absolutely nothing.
The story said that the FBI raided the offices of the founder of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School as well as other offices run by associated corporations.
That is not a guilty finding. But the FBI is not known for pursuing political objectives in its investigations.
Good stuff Diane. I’m seeing that one sneaky tactic used by companies is to use some of their inflated prices to hire staff as “trainers”, “facilitators”, etc. They tend to be young people who can use a few extra dollars. Their real function is to be in-house cheerleaders for whatever product the company is pushing, who will gang up on anyone who calls BS (like yours truly). It’s 100% funded by badly needed tax dollars. Apparently not illegal, but it should be.
Diane,
The PA cyber charter schools devote a huge percentage of their taxpayer/school district funded budgets on advertising, T-shirts for parents, lobbying efforts by parents, public relations, bus trips to the state capital, campaign contributions, letter writing, etc. It is no surprise that you will hear from the minority of success stories as they are basically brainwashed to do so by the marketing agents. We in the public schools pick up the pieces when the cybers drop their failures on our doorsteps in the middle of the year…usually after keeping them on their rolls with no activity by the students for months.
The one PA cyber charter with excellent student achievement is 21st Century Cyber Charter…the board is comprised of public school superintendents and local education service center executive directors.
Mrs. Ravitch, I am a loyal follower and believer of your education perspective, especially as it concerns your position on standardized tests. However, and with no intention to offend or contradict your view on charter schools, I have to disagree with you on this one.
Maybe you are familiar with the ASPIRA organization (http://www.aspira.org/), one of the most successful, respected, responsible, and well-managed nonprofit orgs that serves the education needs of the Hispanic community. ASPIRA’s success with its charter schools has helped Hispanic (and non-Hispanic) students in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Florida achieve academic success despite the fact that urban schools and teachers have declared them “non college material.”
I agree with you that our public schools are the ones called to serve at-risk students, but when that system has failed such students, ASPIRA’s charter schools have done the job.
I know ASPIRA personally, first because it started serving my fellow Puerto Ricans in New York a long time ago and then in Puerto Rico, when the public system gave up on them. And secondly, because as a Puerto Rican educator, education writer and communicator who worked at one of the so-called “not-for-profit education and workforce organizations” (some of whom you have exposed rightfully so), I have experienced first -hand, their disregard for the Hispanic student community.
Should the public system serve the Hispanic student community, there would have been no need for ASPIRA to do it.
You have my highest appreciation for what you do and what you mean to the education community, and thank you for taking the step to start your own blog.
Cordially,
Lourdes Pérez Ramírez, MA
President & Founder
HISPANEDUCA.org
Lourdes.Perez@hispaneduca.org
In Somalia (oops, I mean Louisiana) cyber charters are now getting state funding that is roughly equal to the funding of traditional bricks and mortar schools. Why do cybers need so much state money? Do they pay for faculty, staff, meals, equipment, libraries, gyms, textbooks?????
Actually, many of those things are required: faculty (online courses are taught by teachers), equipment (computers, software, consumables), textbooks (sometimes hardcopy, but even online books require paid copies), and so on. Cyber schools have physical facilities as well, including libraries, tutoring centers, testing locations, and so on. Arrangements have to be made for students to meet their phys ed requirements. They even require buildings to house their teachers, sitting at the computers, and administrators. You will note that most of the posts against cyber schools do not provide hard data. They just assume that the money is wasted, based on intuition. Charter schools in general receive just a fraction of what brick and mortars do.
The CREDO report contains hard data. It says that students in cyber charters have lower scores in both reading and math in all grades tested by the state.
Other reports, NY Times and Washington Post, say that cyber charters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, have lower graduation rates as well as lower test scores.
I beg to differ. K12 Inc has the largest student population of all online cyber charter schools in the US and this is what they want from a PE/Health Teacher:
https://re21.ultipro.com/KIN1002/JobBoard/JobDetails.aspx?__ID=*A5FEACB4EE4E6E98
Other teaching positions are similar –“Virtual” means teachers do it from home. I know because I taught at an online school owned by them for four years. While their office was not far from me, I never went there even once, nor was I required to go to any other bricks and mortar location. Faculty and department meetings and PDs were conducted online and in conference calls. They had experience administering distance learning in higher ed for about a decade before branching into online K12, so they know how to keep overhead low.
Yes, online schools pay for faculty, materials (computer and Internet stipend), textbooks, a server to house the courses, etc. Some require buildings to house teachers, while other teachers work from home.
I don’t understand the concept of “legal fraud”. Is that just reserved for corporations and some politicians?
Re: Corporations
Milken owns K12 Inc and they are operating in 32 states + DC:
http://www.k12.com/schools-programs/online-public-schools
Milken is a convicted felon who admitted to and was imprisoned for fraud related to fiscal managment. Today, he typically says he’s just an investor in his companies and I believe he tries to conceal his real involvement in them by playing a kind of corporate musical chairs. At the very least, state government officials should be able to track and identify his true involvement in his companies and prevent those companies from receiving public funds on the basis of his felony convictions over money matters. I think it’s possible to do, because the feds prevented him from obtaining financial aid for a university he owned, since his felony convictions were related to violating US securities laws. Perhaps it’s because they were violations of federal laws and not state laws, but one would think the issue is more about fraud involving money, rather than jurisdiction.
Re: Certain Politicians
My city’s former mayor of 22 years got our city into some truly terrible long-term contracts that privatized some public services, in order to cover fiscal deficits, including a 75 year parking-meter contract and a 99 year parking garage contract. Parking rates immediately skyrocketed and that is going to be lasting our ENTIRE lifetimes. This former mayor now works for the very law firm that negotiated that parking-meter deal:
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2012/05/daley-a-year-later-no-thanks-for-the-memories.html
I just don’t get why these kinds of things look like fraud and yet might be legal. Are there that many loopholes?
It’s particularly disconcerting when the politicians who do such things are attorneys who are familiar with the law –and the loopholes, too, I guess. This mayor was previously a State’s Attorney. Our last two governors, who were also lawyers, are currently serving time in prison for crimes they commited while in office.
One has to wonder why some people manage to avoid prosecution or sanctions while others don’t. Admittedly, I’m sometimes glad when little people, with little money and little crimes that don’t have victims are not targeted, but when we’re talking about big people, with big money and big crimes that impact millions of folks, not so much.
Dr. Ravitch,
I have a lot of respect for you as an historian of public education, find much to agree with in your thinking, and even in those areas where we disagree, always value your thought-provoking opinions. For all those reasons, I find those post disappointing and beneath you. Not that this story isn’t notable — it is. And not that your critique of cyber charters are unreasonable — they are. But your apparent presumption that Mr. Trombetta is guilty of a crime when he’s not even been charged, and that any accolades might have received as an educator are unearned, is unfair. As I recall, Mr. Trombetta was a highly regarded school principal before he became superintendent of a small western pa school district in an economically distressed town that had to close its high school. I grew up nearby. He turned that district’s K-8 school into a Blue Ribbon school. It’s population being more racially diverse than the surrounding pa school districts, the high school students were tuitioned across state lines to be educated in Ohio — certainly a black eye for PA and for public education in general, which is still separate and unequal in too many places. You also fail to mention the public dollars abused and wasted by any number of practices common to public schools everywhere, from political patronage and nepotism, to the very big business of unions. Having no direct knowledge of what is being investigated here (and neither do you), I’ll reserve judgment on the matter and leave it in the hands of the proper authorities. The dialogue concerning the proper role and place of online learning in K-12 education is something people of goodwill can and must have. I’m with you on standardized testing, and on promoting the standing of teachers — all teachers — in our society. I am more inclined to giving parents more choice as to where and how their children are educated than you are. I am not as convinced of a Golden Age of public education in America as I understand you to be, some educational Eden from which corrupt politicians and greedy entrepreneurs have seduced us. I know this posting on your blog is a shorthand, but as someone who appreciated you and your work, I expect … better.
Ouch — too many typos! Meant to say that your critiques of cyber charters are NOT unreasonable. (I do think many cyber charters provide greater value to students than you believe)
I have been teaching for an online charter school since 2004. Your tirade does a great disservice to online schools. These schools are a great option for many students and their families. Just like a traditional school, online schools are not for everyone. But online schools are a great alternative for many. I have seen great success with my students over the years. Education should be about offering alternate solutions and needs to evolve from the idea that all students should be forced to sit in at a desk from 8:00-3:00 and learn the same way.
Most children need face to face contact with teachers and other children. Very few should be isolated in front of a computer. Also the academic results of online schools are very poor. Look at older posts. I cite various studies.
Unfortunately these schools are driven by the profit motive to recruit aggressively among children who should be in a real school.
I have plenty of interactions with my students. I have weekly online, live sessions where students and I join at a set time. They ask questions, I review material, etc. These students are not “isolated”. There are ways, other than school, for children to have contact with people. I also speak to my students on the phone and have constant email contact with them.
Yes, we recruit aggressively. But students who remain inactive are kicked out and sent back to their face to face schools. This usually happens within the first few weeks.
I love your comment, “…children who should be in a real school.” My school is as REAL as any other school.
REAL schools don’t kick kids out for inactivity. We keep every kid and keep them active. Teachers who can’t keep kids engaged are rated unsatisfactory
It’s a little different when the student is working from home, which is 300 miles away. And we can’t enforce truancy laws since the student lives out of our district.
Exactly. And you can’t look a child in the eye and sense their fear when they can’t read the content you’re sending them. You can’t hug them or call their momma when they need her. You also can’t teach true cooperative learning, where children have to work together, sharing scissors, crayons, and glue to produce a map of their school for parents. Most importantly, you can’t teach them respect and determination. Many students need both of these qualities to move beyond poverty.
Jill, You know little of virtual schools. No, I do not “see” my students, unless we are on a web cam. But I successfully use cooperative learning in my courses. I have seen students form friendships online. These friendships are formed with no preconceived notions. All students are equal.These students learn self-motivation and determination. Why can’t respect be taught online?
Respect. Hmmm… Your first sentence assumes I “know little of virtual schools.” I have been an online facilitator for online courses through NBPTS, PBS Teacherline, and local and district professional development efforts. These were all very powerful learning experiences for adults, but did not substitute for face-to-face interaction.
Online education is also great since you can learn at the comforts of your home. –
Look at our own web page too
http://www.prettygoddess.com