David Reber is a teacher in Kansas who happens to be a terrific writer.
His articles are always insightful.
This one is about the relentless advertising campaign in Kansas of the online giant K12.
As the privatization movement gathers steam, as equity investors launch their latest scheme to extract profits from the public schools, we will be bombarded by even more appeals to go digital. Of course, we are all going digital. But there is no good reason to home school children who don’t need to be home schooled. Virtual academies get terrible results for children. This has been documented by the National Education Policy Center and in exposes in the NY Times and the Washington Post.
Home schooling by computer may be right for some, but it is not right for most students. Don’t buy their con job.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m working on a large paper on ‘Ed Reform’ for my grad school class in Education Leadership. I live and work in NJ, but at this moment my family and I are in South Carolina for a few days. I’m clicking all over the place getting sources for my paper, and have become more aware recently of popups and banners for “South Carolina Connections Academy.” I also get them for k-12, AND, somehow, for “Arizona Connections Academy,” with the same graphics and message as SC.
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K12 Online Corporation also
advertises on Philadelphia stations which are also the main stations in NJ.
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K12 has major online schools in Pennsylvania. For-profit, of course.
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They are also advertising right here in NYC. I see their commercials all the time.
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My son had to enroll in a class offered by an online public school but managed apparently by K12.. It turned out well for him, but I was not overly impressed. My issues had more to do with it being online than the management company.
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I’ve noticed that in the past few years K12 always has an ad up on the American Classical League website looking for Latin teachers. It’s a little scary to think that they are extending their reach even to Latin.
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“Oh, but Latin is perfect for online since it is not a spoken language.”
At least that’s the nonsense I often hear.
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They’re advertising in Delaware too. I saw a commercial a couple of nights ago.
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Actually I have not seen a commercial in Kansas.
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I think that they have been airing TV ads in the St. Louis, MO region. I have definitely seen ads on TV for online elementary-secondary education, just not positive that the ads were from this specific company.
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I teach for a k12 school because I was desperate for job. New to the system but I can say I have just 25 students. I teach k-5.
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Do you think it is appropriate for kindergarten and first grade students to attend virtual school instead of learning to work and play with other children?
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Lack of jobs has me looking into this in KS (local KC ads got my attention). Have never taught online. If you are teaching for them or another similar agency I would like to hear more about your experiences.
I am K-12 certified in Spanish & ESOL if anyone has any leads 🙂 Gracias!
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