This investment service says the trend is downward, and it’s a good time to go short on K12. High student churn, poor results, increasing government scrutiny do not augur well for the future of for-profit virtual schooling.
Archives for category: Privatization
Stephen Dyer raises the question about whether Ohio will follow in Florida’s path and open an investigation of the K12 for-profit school. In Ohio, K12 has classes of 51 students to a single teacher even though it is paid to have a ratio of 20:1.
That is way profitable for K12, though not for the students.
Dyer’s article includes a link to a story about the sharp drop in K12’s stock price that occurred after news of the Florida investigation broke. That story points out that K12 is under investigation in Georgia as well as Florida.
You do have to wonder at what point Secretary of Education Arne Duncan might speak out against the poor quality of online for-profit charter schools and other for-profit entrepreneurs that raid school budgets and produce terrible results. Will he?
This Chicago teacher sees a sinister motive in the avalanche of hostility to teachers. Teachers were always considered admirable even though teaching was not well paid and not very prestigious. But these days, teachers have become “enemies,” who soak up money and do little work, who get “paid for breathing” and “tenure for life.” None of this is true. This teacher sees a dark side:
The teacher bashing was key to changing public perception about teachers because in order to squeeze money out of cash-strapped districts, you have to cut personnel. It certainly was unfair and hurt, but it was just a tactic in a larger war to privatize a public good.
This is about Rupert Murdoch’s Wireless Generation and Apple iPads delivering online tests 4 or more times a year to every child K-12 in Chicago. And re-selling student data to CPS to evaluate every teacher.
This is about a brutal teacher eval methodology based on junk science. It is imposed at the same time as tough common core tests that most believe children will do poorly on. And all to provide an excuse to fire roughly 6,000 CPS teachers and vastly increase class sizes.
This is about remaking the 3rd largest school district in the nation as a scalable market for Rupert Murdoch’s and Apple’s benefit. This is about hedge fund managers placing their bets on these companies getting huge contracts in the largest school districts — that is why they have flooded Chicago with tv and radio ads demonizing teachers.
And this is about Democrats raising billions of dollars in campaign funding.
This is my analysis of the strike, posted on the website of the New York Review of Books.
Listen to an excellent panel discussion, featuring the brilliant Dissent writer Joanne Barkan. She is the author of “Got Dough: How Billionaires Rule Our Schools,” which you should read.
K12, the giant cyber corporation that sells for-profit schooling, is in trouble in Seminole County, Florida, because the state insists that teachers must be certified. But having certified teachers is more expensive than having uncertified teachers, which cuts into K12’s profit margins.
The Florida Department of Education has opened an investigation into K12.
So, you can see, this is a big problem for regulators, who have this quaint attachment to the idea that teachers should meet a standard of some sort, but also for K12, whose profit margins are at risk.
You will note in the first article that K12 has another problem: The NCAA refuses to accept the credits of K12’s online program Aventa Learning, because of low standards. So student athletes hoping to get a quick and easy degree by point-and-click will have to enroll elsewhere, perhaps in a real school.
Former Governor Jeb Bush has been selling online schooling all over the country, as a win-win (cut costs, make money), and he wields influence in Florida. The investigation should be interesting.
A reader sent this today:
Interview of Chris Hedges today by Amy Goodman. Opens with comments on Chicago teacher strike, as excerpted below:
CHRIS HEDGES: Well, you know, the tactic is clear. And, you know, the secretary of education, Duncan, is behind it. And that is essentially the stripping away of—you know, of qualified teachers. We’re watching it in New York. You know, the mayor of New York is very much a part of this effort. The assault on the New York City teachers’ union is as egregious as the assault against the Chicago Teachers Union.
And it really boils down to the fact that we spend $600-some billion a year, the federal government, on education, and the corporations want it. That’s what’s happening. And that comes through charter schools. It comes through standardized testing. And it comes through breaking teachers’ unions and essentially hiring temp workers, people who have very little skills. This is what Teach for America is about. They teach by rote, and they earn nothing. There’s no career.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/11/chris_hedges_on_9_11_touring
Glen Brown is a teacher and poet.
In this post he explains why he does not trust Advance Illinois, Stand for Children, or other pseudo-reform groups that do not respect teachers or value genuine education.
He writes:
Carefully examine the goals of public education. They are not the goals of Stand for Children and Advance Illinois. A teacher does not make a sale or earn a profit. A teacher works with children and young adults. Though we all want the best instruction for our students and children, we do not have to consider riding along with this prevailing wave of attacks on teachers’ autonomy and their rights by corporate factions and their entrepreneurs, such as Jonah Edelman’s Stand for Children and Robin Stean’s Advance Illinois. Why? Because waves will crash to shore no matter how you ride them.
Count on Stephanie Simon of Reuters to get the story that eluded every other reporter.
She is the one that got the inside story on Louisiana, TFA, and for-profit investors.
Now she has the scoop on Chicago.
The strike in Chicago is not about money.
It is a national story.
It’s about the survival of public education.
Read her story.
Yesterday I responded to an article in The Atlantic claiming that Michelle Rhee was actually a “lefty” and was “taking over” the Democratic party.
I responded to the article.
Others have said that the writer, Molly Ball, was sending out an automated reply, but I got something slightly different.
What she says here is that she doesn’t understand why a Democrat would not support for-profit charter schools; or work closely with Governor Chris Christie to strip teachers of tenure and seniority; or work with Governor Rick Scott to promote privatization of public schools; or work with Governor Mitch Daniels to push vouchers through the legislature; or accept an award from the rightwing American Federation for Children in company with Governor Scott Walker.
What she says is that there is no difference between Democrats and Mitt Romney on education.
I hope that President Obama makes clear what the differences are.
Here is our exchange:
Hi Diane, thanks for the feedback. My intent with the story was not to mediate yet another round of the education-reform debate, but to illustrate the political inroads Rhee and her ideas have made, while noting, as you do, that they remain quite controversial. To answer your rhetorical questions, I don't see why a Democrat can't do any of those things. Best, Molly ________________________________________ From: Diane Ravitch [gardend@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 6:05 PM To: Ball, Molly Subject: From Diane Ravitch re Rhee Would a Democrat work to promote a for-profit chain? Would a Democrat work with Republican governors Rick Scott, Chris Christie, and Mitch Daniels? What part of Rhee's agenda differs from that of the most rightwing Republicans? What Democrat would have accepted an honor from the far-right voucher-loving organization American Federation for Children, which simultaneously honored Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker? Nothing that Rhee advocates has ever succeeded. Neither charters nor vouchers nor merit pay nor evaluating teachers by test scores has any evidence of improving education. Diane Ravitch
