Uh-oh. This wasn’t in the business plan. Teachers at the K12 Inc. virtual charter school in California created a union. They threatened to “logout” if management didn’t recognize them and agree to their demands. Management caved at CAVA.
While CTA welccomed the additions, some members were unhappy to embrace teachers in a for-profit virtual charter that has been subject to fines and investigations for its behavior and consistently gets poor results.
“Inspired by walkouts in West Virginia and Oklahoma, teachers in California’s largest online charter school were prepared to strike if their new union could not reach an agreement with their school’s management.
“But California Virtual Academies, which includes nine schools and contracts with K12 Inc., the biggest for-profit charter school operator in the country, and the fledgling union of California Virtual Educators Unitedhave settled on their first contract, union representatives announced Wednesday. Among the teacher demands the school has agreed to: some limits on the number of students they oversee, more flexibility in interacting with students and parents, and a whopping 17.8 percent increase in pay…
”As a unionized staff, CAVA teachers belong to a small club within the charter sector. Only 11 percent of charter schools are unionized nationally, down slightly from 12 percent in 2010, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Charter schools make up about 7 percent of the nation’s public schools. About 70 percent of all teachers nationwide participate in unions or employee associations, according to the U.S. Department of Education.”
The contract must be ratified by the nearly 500 teachers who belong to the new local.
”K12 Inc.’s financial arrangements with the schools it helps run in California were the subject of an investigation by the East Bay Times. The paper found that the schools had little independence from K12 Inc. and that the Herndon, Va.-based management company charged fees for its service that were at times far in excess of what the schools could afford. Teachers employed by K12 Inc. were pressured to inflate student enrollment and attendance numbers, which help determine state funding. The paper also reported that half of the schools’ students were proficient in reading and only a third were proficient math. Many students that enrolled in K12 Inc. did not graduate.
“K12 Inc. reached an $8.5 million settlement with the California Attorney General in 2016 over allegations that the company misled parents about how well students were doing in the California schools it manages. The company did not:admit to any wrongdoing.
“K12 Inc. and online or cyber charters in general have been under increasing scrutiny both in California and beyond. That’s been driven in part by the ascent of Betsy DeVos to U.S. Education Secretary. DeVos is a supporter of online schools—touting them as a means to bring school choice to rural areas—and an early investor in K12 Inc.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I dispute the notion of a public charter school, by their very nature, charters are not public. Their budgets do not come 100 per cent from public funds but significantly from private monies. They do siphon public funds from public schools but they make money for the operators of the charter
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I do not believe that any schools should be “for profit”, because that treats students as if they are a good to be bought and sold. It negates the whole purpose of education, and puts the needs of each student below the desire for a profit, which is morally wrong. I also do not feel that school that operate solely through electronic interaction are the best way to educate our students. Nothing can compare to in-person human interaction. While technology can be a great educational tool, if it is overused it can become detrimental to the growth of students. In a school that exists only online, students miss out on valuable opportunities to develop social skills with their peers and adults. Taking all of these aspects of this issue into consideration, I do think that all workers are entitled to livable, fair wages and adequate working conditions. I am surprised to hear that so few charter school teachers are unionized, and I wonder how the lack of unionization effects the dynamics of the charter system.
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