In a report on the powerful and profitable virtual charter school industry in Ohio, Stephen Dyer of Innovation Ohio documents the failure of these schools. 35,000 students are enrolled in E-schools.
Not a single virtual charter school is rated A or B by the state. Most earn an F.
The graduation rates at the state’s nine virtual charters are abysmal. The worst-performing district in the state has a higher graduation rate than all the E-schools.
Dyer writes:
Since 2000, E-Schools have received well over $1 billion from the state that was originally slated to go to school districts. In return for this money, E-schools have delivered extremely poor student achievement results. And while the statewide E-Schools perform only slightly better overall than they did in the 2011 report, the tepid improvement is significantly tempered by the $60 million annual increase in their funding over the same period. In fact, the sector has grown from a $115 million program in 2006 to a $250 million program in 2014. At the same time, local taxpayers have been forced to subsidize their substandard performance.
Why does Ohio continue to fund these low-performing schools? Why are they never held accountable? Because the owners of the two biggest E-schools make generous campaign donations to important elected officials.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The self-proclaimed “education reform” movement: #1 in the DashForTheCash.
The self-proclaimed “education reform movement: #1 in the RaceToTheBottom.
Winners no matter how you put it!
😏
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They run ads that appeal to kids who have been bullied, or those who are bored, or those seeking a challenge, or those who are just not getting their way in traditional public schools. I believe they even provide the computer for students.
I can see why some people choose e-schools, thinking they are a solution. The problem is, the kids drop out. Or, they don’t do the work.
Elementsxof what they offer could be used to supplement the regular classroom. But, they aren’t a replacement.
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Why are so many parents willing to sign their children up to attend these schools? Is the propagandistic advertising for these schools so sparkly that parents can’t see past the glitter?
Are the parents of the children attending these school unaware of the inferior education that their children are receiving? Do they just not care?
Are they happy to not have to get their children to a brick and mortar school every morning?
Is it the free computers?
There are probably some good reasons for parents to enroll their children in virtual schools, but 35,000 students in substandard schools that cost tax payers billions of dollars sounds like a huge waste all of the way around.
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I live in the Cincinnati market so see these advertisements all the time. Yes, Betsy, it is the glitsy commercials full of promises. In addition to what deb mentioned above, my “favorite” shows a person as their 12-year-old self and their 20-something self. The older one makes comments about how he was able to reach his dreams (this one is a paramedic or nurse, I believe) because he attended one of the e-schools.
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We have those in Utah, too. But the irony of the one we have is that it is a girl who becomes an English teacher! By the time the fictional girl is old enough to become a teacher, if this “school” has its way, there will be no teachers left.
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e-schools will NEVER work. Kids, left to their own devices at home will not take it upon themselves to do the work. Especially if their parents are not home. If that was me when I was 14ish. I wouldn’t have done it and I was a honor roll student. Kids are famous for task avoidance
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The research seems to indicate it only seems to work with older, motivated middle class students. Most of these programs are doomed to failure because they have ignored the evidence. Students gain a lot from being in the company of other students and under the guidance of the real, human teacher that knows what he/she is doing.
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Every year, my school gets a dozen or so students back from these virtual charters. They are always extremely behind. These are generally Caucasian students 8th and 9th graders from middle and lower middle class backgrounds.
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The latest, from the propaganda machine -when students return, there’s no evidence of adverse educational outcome.
The plutocratic Columbus Dispatch reported the story. It appears Ohio reporters have Fordham on speed dial so, the article quoted them, as usual, with no opposing view, as usual. The source of Fordham’s funding never seems to merit mention.
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You may, probably will, be interested that in today’s Chicago Tribune the charter schools had a full page ad in which they touted, we send a higher percentage of students on to college. They left out some key facts even if indeed that is true.
Can you imagine the uproar if the public schools put out a full page ad like that, even if it were legal.
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Gordon, did they say what % of their 9th grade cohort made it to senior year? Or did they mean the % of seniors who went to college? Thus, overlooking attrition rates.
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I wouldn’t wrap fish in that rag. Cruelty to dead fish.
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Following is a guest commentary which I wrote to our local newspaper regarding another guest commentary written by the man in question.
It has NOT been printed as of now and may never be. It is shared here in hopes that a great many others will write similar letters to the editor. their political representatives etc.
I live in Indiana.
George Mrak’s commentary on school choice, vouchers, superficially seems so logical unless one has been there done that. Politicians like disgraced Tony Bennett promote these ideas. Experienced people on the firing line with years of study and experience know better.
Points worth considering.
Do charters outperform public schools? Of the BOTTOM 36 public school districts ranked by the amount of state funding per pupil, 34 were rated “A” and 2 “B” by Indiana Department of Education.
The TOP 10% of charters: 3 A’s, 4 Bs, 14 Ds, 10 Fs. Many have lost their charter, many have failed, had to close. Yet they are receiving more money per student than public schools.
Are charters held to the same high standards as public schools? Absolutely not. Too, public schools must take ALL children, charters: no. A level playing field for comparison even?
Can you trust the politicians promoting charters when they circumvent a duly elected public official who garnered more votes than the governor and politicians who have made horrendous counterproductive legislation making Indiana anathema to the rest of the U. S., undoubtedly diminishing job opportunities?
Ask too: Are corporations, charters, bottom lines the public, children’s interests or making money?
Who is best qualified to understand education, educators and scholars who have studied assiduously for years the many aspects of education or corporate CEOs running charters?
Do you believe that hiring teachers who may not have been thoroughly trained to teach in its many aspects, been licensed by the state, often with minimal training will give superior education to those who have?
Does an education which prepares your child as a widget for millionaire CEOs better than an education which strives to develop children’s potential as a human being, prepares them for a democratic society, all while preparing them for the work place?
Mrak asked, rightfully, why is it that charter schools are most prevalent that have grades of F? Obvious answer as Dr. Lux has repeatedly pointed out, our failing schools, charters exist where poverty, crime, gangs, drugs, teen pregnancy, family mobility, low attendance rates, and the continuing issue of English as a second language. is rampant. Is poverty etc the fault of the public schools or of political ineptness, the same politicians promoting charters and vouchers? Have public schools become the whipping boys for this political ineptness?
Yes, schools in poverty areas receive more money per pupil than other schools. Children with above named problems require greater funding, often inadequate for their needs.
True: superintendents, professional teachers et al disparage charters for reasons stated above. Is that bad or a signal worthy of examination?
Most people are unaware that America’s public schools actually outperform or are at least equal to those of European and other nations when excluding these poverty areas. Dr. Diane Ravitch’s deeply researched books give insight into this and other unappreciated factual information, much of which most Americans are abysmally ignorant. For those unfamiliar with her, she was Undersecretary of Education under both George Herbert Walker Bush and Bill Clinton and is the foremost expert in the history of American Education.
Choice? Indeed! Protect the public school system which made this country great or hand our children over to corporate entities which have shown more failure, note above statistics, than struggling public schools which fight poverty, neighborhood crime, poor parenting etc.
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Yesterday I met a former student who is now doing online HS. She likes it, but she admitted she was not learning much. Each day she gets the assignments done quickly and then is at leisure for most of the day. She is not taking a foreign language and will not. It seems she’s not getting an education. But then, in truth, a lot of kids who attend school are not getting an education –not because the teachers aren’t teaching, but because the student chooses to check-out mentally.
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The cyber charter owned by Pearson in Utah has “failed” both years that the school grading has been in place in this state. A newly-passed law would allow state takeover, and conversion to charter status, those schools that “fail” three years in a row. What will the state do for the school that is ALREADY a charter?
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CROSS POSTED http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Innovation-Ohio-E-Schools-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Diane-Ravitch_FAILURE_INDUSTRY_Reality-150522-690.html#comment546069WITH THIS COMMENT WHICH HAS EMBEDDED LINKS TO THIS BLOG.
Charters are sold as ‘choice,’ which is pure Orwellian doublespeak. Across the nation, the charters serve only to enrich hedge funds and privateers, but there are 15,880 districts in 50 states and people listen to all the chatter and noise about “schools” and thus the oligarchs take down our democracy.
An ignorant population means that we will never elect leaders who will govern for the common good.
Read my series here, or go to the Ravitch blog, and put in CHARTER SCHOOLS IN THE https://dianeravitch.net/?s=CHARTER+SCHOOL+FAILURESEARCH FIELD.
TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW to be aware that the INSTITUTION of public education is going down FAST! The legislature are taking over ‘failed schools’ in many states, and there are no educators making policy.
Would you allow legislators to mandate what doctors and hospitals can do to treat you?
Wake up! get active. Start a movement to end standardized testing, and to bring the professional teacher back into our INSTITUTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION.
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Neither sacred sacrifices for democratic freedoms nor, fiscal responsibility, matters to Ohio Republican politicians.
A state representative explained to me that he resented having to ask for campaign donations while, the Democrats received money from unions, without asking. No joke. So, I assume the Repubs. see money, from on-line school operators, as evening the score.
In typical Repub. fashion, it’s convenient for them to ignore that dues from the paychecks of citizens, who live and pay taxes in their communities, differs from a couple of Michael Milken-type profiteers. U.S. Supreme Court deja vu.
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