The nation’s largest virtual charter chain, K12 Inc., has consistently gotten low marks for its academic results. Founded by junk bond king Michael Milken, it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It is a for-profit business, but according to this financial report, its future profitability is in doubt.
“Summary
“Two days ago, we revealed multiple K12 school closures and a first ever union contract that we estimate will lead K12 to lose money in fiscal 2019 and beyond.
“Yesterday, we learned of another school closing; we estimate this non-managed school will reduce revenue by another $7 Million and operating income $5 Million.
“We were told the school was closing due to its inability to meet academic standards, marking yet another failed chapter in the virtual charter school story.
“More Bad News For K12’s Fiscal 2019
“On Monday, we released a report that disclosed five K12 (NYSE:LRN) schools that are closing or at risk of closing after this school year and a first ever union contract for the California Virtual Academies. We estimate that the lost revenue and increased expenses will cause pre-tax earnings to decline $20 Million and lead K12 to lose money in fiscal 2019 and beyond.
“Yesterday, we were told of yet another school closing. A parent of the Texas Virtual Academy (TVA) 3-8 Campus told us that, according to a letter from the school, it will be closing after the school year due to an inability to meet academic standards.
“We called K12, who partners with the school’s operator, and the enrollment specialist confirmed that the school is closing.”
In 2014, the NCAA announced that it would no longer accept credits accrued by student athletes at 24 K12 Inc. virtual charters.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Can somebody explain to me why #TFA is no longer scrutinized? Did’t it breed many of these Ed. reformers and Charterers? Doesn’t it still assist in the downfall of public ed? What did I miss?
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Dave,
We will get back to that. TFA is part of the landscape of failed reforms.
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The bloom is off the turd with TFA: an improved economy – less need for college grads to polish resumes before entering the “real” job market – and increased scrutiny (long overdue) has led to declining applications.
Also, their insipid and disingenuous rhetoric hasn’t changed, and more and more people see through them
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Awwww…how sad, too bad (for K-12).
That having been said, I do feel really badly for the students & parents, victims in all of this. (Oh, & also to any local public school districts that K-12 sucked blood {taxpayer} money from; what a shameful waste.)
A word to the wise: Go to a brick-&-mortar PUBLIC school!!!
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Rich Cordray
The scope of the ECOT scandal is growing. This is theft of taxpayer dollars and anyone who deliberately suppresses a whistleblower who comes forward with inside knowledge of fraud should be prosecuted.”
Cordray is running for gov. When Cordray was attorney general he sued ECOT on behalf of the state. He was the first elected official to call attention to what was going on there- a decade ahead of the rest.
He probably understands how ECOT runs as a business better than anyone else, but don’t let ECOT supporters tell you they “didn’t know”. The Ohio Supreme Court case Cordray brought was there to read by anyone who was interested.
They all knew we were being robbed. The only question is if they suppressed the whistleblower report.
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Maybe if enough of us email the major networks we can get this story on the national news. The public at large needs to hear this story. The public should understand what garbage they are being made to pay for in the name of education, and the awful results these cyber charters get. This is an example of the “fleecing of America.” This story needs to be told beyond Ohio and into the public consciousness.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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A few decades ago, a lot of people in tech envisioned a future in which one could
personalize learning
take high-quality learning anywhere
vastly reduce educational costs (which are mostly in salaries and facilities)
This would all happen via an online education revolution, which was something predicted by Isaac Asimov more than half a century ago in his short story “The Fun They Had.” Gates rammed through (and paid for) a single set of national standards [sic] so that the proponents of online education could have a single set of standards, nationally, to correlate their online offerings to.
The guys who started K-12 included former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett. See this:
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/bill-bennett-offer-k-12-education-over-internet
The No Child Left Behind act required states to close schools and offer alternatives when those schools didn’t reach proficiency targets on the state tests. After a few years, 60 percent of schools were on track not to reach annual yearly progress (AYP) targets. Where were the alternatives to come from? Ho ho. They would be online. Big bucks for a former Secretary of Education and his partners. Hmmm. Would that have had anything to do with how No Child Left Behind was designed?
Then, the results started coming in. People taking online classes had very, very low completion rates, and they learned a LOT less. Entirely predictable because teaching and learning are transactional–they are things that happen between people–teachers and students. Take this from the equation and it just doesn’t work well.
So, the online ed people went back to the drawing board. Clearly, just having students sit at home at computers wouldn’t work. Perhaps if they had them all come to a room full of computers with a single teacher/proctor milling among the hundreds of desks, it might work. Again, utter failure.
But the proponents of online education aren’t going to give this up because there is so much money to be made. They have managed to keep mandatory K-12 testing alive despite its utter failure FOR DECADES to improve outcomes or close educational outcome gaps between poor and wealthy students. An existence proof that a social policy can UTTERLY FAIL but continue to be resurrected, zombielike.
Hmmm. That didn’t work. So let’s do more of it.
This argument makes sense to people who make a lot of money selling computers, tablets, online education programs, consulting on standards, and pseudoscientifc tests.
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And, ofc, computer systems don’t go on strike for a living freaking wage.
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The “so-called” techies like Gates and Zuckerberg have NO CLUE except how to deceive.
I don’t want our young learning anything from the likes of them on tax payer dollars. What a SET UP.
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The bottom line is that good teachers inspire kids. Online classes, however flashy, simply don’t. Kids might think the best of these cool for an hour or so, then they grow bored with them, and then they actively hate them and avoid them as much as they can. Happens again and again and again. But no amount of evidence will get through to the online ed proponents. Why? Because if they can convince people to buy the latest iteration of this ongoing failure, they will make billions. And with online stuff, one can always make the new product that unlike all the others that failed miserably will be the one that will completely revolutionize learning. We have diagnostic testing! We have avatars! We personalize! We provide real-time data! We have galvanic skin response wristbands and retinal scanners to monitor students’ engagement and emotional responses! We have a grit engine! We integrate test prep keyed to the standards [sic] and state tests [sick]!
One can always churn out the new product and the new hype.
But . . . but . . . you see, this time it’s going to be completely different! Our student avatars allow students to choose their clothing and accessories! And we have an in-line video-editing feature for student collaboration! And we still slot students according to a poorly designed diagnostic into regimented, poorly designed instructional tracks, so we continue to PERSONALIZE.
Because the way to personalize, of course, is to eliminate persons and replace them with pixels.
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You’re so right, Bob. The entire scenario is ridiculous.
New product; new hype. Good one.
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From the Ed Reform Devil’s New Speak Dictionary:
Personalize: to replace persons with pixels
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Orlando Sentinel piece about unregulated, publicly-funded private schools in Florida:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-felon-teacher-voucher-schools-scott-maxwell-20180424-story.html
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If K12, Inc goes under it will actually be to the benefit of all the Students that failed because of this virtual system. New Mexico has one K-12, Inc virtual school that has continued to go down hill as noted by the State’s grading system. This school should have never opened.
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Here’s my horrid experience with an online Algebra I course. I worked with a high school student who was told by her school principal to take this online Algebra I course.
The student manual was well not well written. The test items were obscure. The midterm and final were supposed to be taken at a site. Found out THERE WERE NO SITES at ALL. One site was supposed to be our Public Library. I called the Library and the person in charge told me. “We don’t do that anymore.” I called other sties and they told me the same thing, “We don’t do that anymore.” We found out WHY. The course was a total nightmare.
The best part of this course was the really OLD Algebra I book.
Can’t make this stuff up.
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