I have posted many times about the corruption embedded in the for-profit virtual charter industry. The founder of Pennsylvania’s largest virtual charter school was sentenced to prison for misappropriating $8 million. The single biggest scam in U.S. history involved an online charter chain in California called A3, whose owners managed to make $50 million in state funding disappear. The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) in Ohio collected $1 billion over its nearly two decades, its owner paid his companies for supplying services, he made generous gifts to elected officials, but ECOT declared bankruptcy in 2018 to avoid repaying the state for phantom students. The stories of corruption, embezzlement, and scamming go on and on.
Therefore I was delighted to find this excellent summary by journalist Florina Rodov, who gathers many of the scandals and research reports in one place to demonstrate the woeful failure of virtual charters. As she points out, the virtual charter industry has beefed up its already massive marketing budget to take advantage of the pandemic and try to gather market share.
One detail that I found fascinating was the link to executive compensation for K12 Inc., the for-profit virtual chain that has the largest enrollment in the nation. The top five executives receive a total of $28 million in compensation. Beats teaching!
She begins:
“Instead of going to school every morning, what if school could come to you?” an ad asks enticingly, promising students “online personalized learning” tailored to their specific needs. It’s one of hundreds of active Facebook ads run by K12 Inc., the largest for-profit virtual charter school provider in the United States. As public schools rose to the challenge of educating students online during the pandemic, corporations like K12 Inc., whose stock price has been climbing since mid-March, were licking their chops at the prospect of moving kids online permanently. Though virtual charter schools perform dismally academically and are plagued by scandal, the goal is for them to replace traditional brick-and-mortar public schools in an effort to privatize education. While this would harm students, it would most egregiously damage Black and Latino children, who’ve already been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus, due to structural inequities such as lack of access to computers and internet service, as well as inconsistent health care and crowded housing.
The article has many important links and I urge you to read it in full. The virtual charter industry has the full-throated support of Betsy DeVos, who lied about their results at her confirmation hearings in 2017, claiming they had 100% graduation rates, when their graduation rates are abysmal.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Virtual charters cannot replace traditional brick-and-mortar public schools, not just because of the hands-on education public schools provide, but also because they offer meals, health screenings, after-school programs, and other vital services to children. Public schools are the heart of their communities and the foundation of our democracy.”
Virtual charter schools are cash cows for unscrupulous grifters that “head hunt” students in poor neighborhoods. No, Cruella DeVos, parents are not necessarily the best consumers. Parents that sign children up for on-line charter schools are often poor and uninformed. Legislators that rubber stamp virtual charters are not good stewards of tax payers’ dollars, and some of them work with the corporate grifters.
People must understand that when ALEC gets involved in promoting something, it is generally not in the best interest of the public. Virtual charter schools are a bait and switch scheme that that lures in naive students through lots of advertising. Then, the so-called instruction yields abysmal results. The virtual charter industry is corrupt, and many legislators continue to turn a blind eye to this egregious waste of money.
“Virtual charter schools are a bait and switch scheme that that lures in naive students through lots of advertising.” Always so much advertising for what doesn’t work well in education, but so little advertising for what does produce results.
There’s no money to be made funding schools fairly and expanding services and supports for needy students, although Arne Duncan’s new gig sounds like a way to make money off public schools that are foolish enough to hire the company. https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2020/09/arne-duncans-new-corporate-edu-biz-job.html?spref=tw
Thanks Diane for amplifying this article which comes from my Our Schools project, and thanks also for linking to the email, which I urge your readers to subscribe to: https://independentmediainstitute.org/our-schools/
Yes. I am now signed up for your Our School project. And thank you and Florina Rodov for this this excellent report, including connections of the charter industry to ALEC.
Jeff,
Thanks to you and Ms. Rodov
You are both right up at the top when it comes to journalists covering education issues.
Keep up the great work.
Milkanthropriation
Milkanthropriation
Is misanthropriation
Of funds by online school
And public plays the fool