Earlier today, I posted the question: Whatever happened to the audit of the California Virtual Academies, which was supposed to be released in March 2017?
The California Department of Education contacted me to say that the audit was released two days ago, and CDE ordered the Virtual Academies to repay nearly $2 Million in misspent funds.
Let me be clear: I don’t think that for-profit Virtual Charters should be allowed to exist. If districts want to offer online instruction, not for profit, that is their prerogative.
But the for-profits, especially K12 Inc. (founded by Michael Milken and known for paying its executives multimillion dollar salaries) recruit students constantly, have high attrition, and get poor results.
In light of Jesse Calefati’s stunning expose of K12 Inc. in the San Jose Mercury-News, I am surprised that these scam online academies got by with a tap on the hand. According to Calefati, the Virtual Academies have collected hundreds of millions from California taxpayers to run low-performing, ineffectual “schools.” ECOT in Ohio was audited and required to pay more than $60 Million. Excuse me, but a fine of less than $2 Million is trivial for these corporations. Chicken feed.
I hope that the fine of “less than $2 Million” is the beginning and not the end of the Audits. The for-profits are notorious for inflating enrollments and collecting money for phantom students.
Here is the audit.
Here are the articles that CDE sent.
CDE: Online Charter Schools Must Repay Misused State Dollars
By Richard Bammer
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Monday said a pair of online charter schools must pay back nearly $2 million of improperly used Common Core education funds.
In a press release, he cited California Virtual Academies and three Insight Schools (together forming CAVA) must remit the dollars to the California Department of Education.
This latest among several other actions stems directly from an audit by the State Controller’s Office and commissioned by the CDE.
The Vacaville Reporter
http://www.thereporter.com/article/NG/20171010/NEWS/171019986
Former Lodi Virtual Academy Fined $2M
By Jennifer Bonnett
A virtual academy that once had a key role in the Lodi Unified School District has been fined close to $2 million by the state for falsifying enrollment figures.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has announced that the California Virtual Academies and three Insight Schools (together CAVA) must remit nearly $2 million to the California Department of Education in improperly used Common Core education funds.
Lodi News-Sentinel
http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_a8ab29bc-ae42-11e7-8ded-03b98ff003ed.html
Virtual Charter Academies In California Must Refund Nearly $2 Million To State
By Louis Freedberg
As a result of a just released state audit, the California Department of Education says a network of virtual charter schools must refund nearly $2 million in improperly used state funds that were intended for implementation of the Common Core standards in English and math.
In addition, the department will require the schools to conduct a new audit of its average daily attendance records and a number of other actions.
“The California Department of Education is committed to ensuring public schools follow the laws and regulations that safeguard taxpayer funds,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. “It’s critical that our students receive the resources they need to succeed.”
EdSource
Virtual charter academies in California must refund nearly $2 million to state
California Fines Charter School Chain $2 Million
By Sharon Noguchi
In long-awaited results of a 1½-year investigation, California’s finance and education chiefs on Monday issued a critical audit of the online charter-school chain California Virtual Academies, finding several contractual violations and irregularities and imposing a nearly $2 million fine.
The report ordered the charter firm to provide documentation around student progress, student-teacher ratios and excess oversight fees, among other things. It also demanded California Virtual Academies produce an audited opinion on the accuracy of its average daily attendance — on which California bases its payments to public schools, including charters — and to pay the California Department of Education $1,995,148 for improperly handled funds.
Mercury News
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And they still want to self-regulate? I think my head is going to explode.
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No Child Left Behind set up kids for failure and mandated that those not achieving AYP would have to be given alternatives. What alternatives? By the end of its run, 60 percent of schools in the country not meeting those goals. But this was the plan. What alternatives? You cant replace 60 percent of the nation’s schools with new brick and mortar ones. But the plan was for virtual ones all along, I think. Use the legislation to create a market for a whole new HUGE industry, with the former Education Secretary who oversaw this stuff one of the founding partners of the largest of the online schools. Didn’t quite work out as planned, but . . .
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Thanks, Bob,
Starving public schools for PERSONAL GAIN is the GAME.
It’s SICK! Our parents and students have been SPAMMED!
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Bob,
I agree. Online “schools” were the goal. Bigly. Big money! The biggest. The biggliest. I live in California, so I opened an online charter scam three days ago. I have since enrolled 9.5 billion students. Auto-click, cha-ching! Ha ha ha!
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lol
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Good golly, this “online charter” despite all their whiz-bang personalized learning technology was unable to account for the time its students actually spent online doing coursework. I wonder why they find this to be so hard?
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Apparently the $9million CAVA’s top execs were pd in 2015 [alone] were not part of the settlement… a measly $2million settlement, based simply on what is most likely a fraction of the total fraudulent enrollment collected for, w/o consideration for the much larger CA taxpayer monies siphoned off to reward top execs for their successful scam on the state of CA… Wow! But that’s CA for you… Enron took them for $40-45 billion.
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Thank you for posting this Audit release. It took CA State Controller’s Office 16 months to crank this out. The $2 Million fine is probably what CAVA cleared just in CA during the 16 month period.
The K-12, Inc. history classes are being offered in our Palos Verdes Peninsula School District even though as a former school board president I strongly protested.
Students think that this is an easy ‘A’ and it might be, but they are learning nothing.
CA used to have the Golden Standards. Now we’re down to dust.
Don’t know who to thank first? Gov. Jerry Brown? His buddy CA School Board President Michael Kirst? Who’s driving CA to team up with companies on the NY Stock Exchange?
Wondering if members of the CA School Board have stock in K-12, Inc. or their relatives?
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An unfortunate combination of big bucks and one of the most permissive charter laws in the country, dating back to 1992, which allows charters to appeal to the State Board if the local district and the county board turns them down. The Cal Board of Ed is packed with charter supporters who approve nearly every charter that comes before them. In fact the regs say they have to approve, unless it can be shown that the school will actively harm students or would be worse than not attending school at all. I suggest you google the “Spending Blind” report if you haven’t seen it already.
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