Re-Post: Someone Hasn’t Been Paying Attention

A colleague passed along this blog entry and I wanted to re-post it.  The original is available at:

http://spearsstrategy.com/2015/09/someone-hasnt-been-paying-attention/

Enjoy

Someone Hasn’t Been Paying Attention

by Andy on September 2, 2015 in Education Policy in the States, K12, North Carolina Education Policy

I thought about titling this piece: “K12, Inc. still sucks” but thought better of it. Then, I thought, K12, Inc. does, in fact, suck. So, I’ve put it right out there.

Here’s the thing: While many states already realize K12, Inc. sucks because they have sucked at providing virtual schools in those states, North Carolina has yet to realize how sucky K12, Inc. is.

Lindsay Wagner at North Carolina Policy Watch tells the tale of how K12, Inc. (who must have rock star lobbyists) convinced North Carolina’s State Board of Education to change its daily attendance rules to K12 could continue to rake in cash while not serving students.

Wagner reports:

The North Carolina State Board of Education quietly approved a policy last month that could allow the state’s two brand new virtual charter schools to avoid recording and reporting daily student attendance, and stipulates that the virtual schools would only lose their state funding for a student if he or she fails to show any “student activity,” —as defined by the for-profit charter operators—for at least ten consecutive days.

She then notes the problems with K12, Inc. in numerous states, including spotty attendance by students and this seemingly inconvenient fact:

 In every state where K12, Inc. operated virtual schools and public information was readily available (AZ, CO, GA, NV, OH, PA, SC, TX, WA), virtual students’ math and reading standardized test scores were significantly behind the state average

I saying seemingly inconvenient because a rational observer might think that states like North Carolina, seeing this type of failure, would refuse to allow K12, Inc. to operate within its borders. Instead, policymakers there are embracing K12, Inc. and appear willing to hand over millions in taxpayer dollars in expectation of different results than the company has yielded anywhere else.

North Carolina need only look right next door to Tennessee to see just how bad K12, Inc. sucks. After four years of sucking in Tennessee, the General Assembly and State Department of Education finally shut down the K12-run Tennessee Virtual Academy.

Here’s what’s most insidious about all this: K12, Inc. is supposed to be helping kids learn. It’s replacing traditional public school for kids who might need a virtual environment and the flexibility it provides. Virtual schools aren’t necessarily a bad option. It’s just that K12, Inc. is a bad provider.

While it may be stupid for a state to hand over millions in tax dollars to a company with a terrible track record in hopes that this time, the company will finally yield results, we aren’t talking about results in terms of reducing paper usage or improving attendance at state parks. We’re talking about the future of North Carolina’s children.

K12, Inc. is not a new player in the virtual school game. They have a proven track record. And they have sucked at their job in state after state after state. After three or four or five years of low performance in North Carolina, maybe K12, Inc.’s virtual school there will be closed, like it was in Tennessee. Unfortunately, taxpayers won’t get their money back. And more importantly, the children who lost a chance at a good education won’t get those years back.

For more on education politics and policy, follow @TheAndySpears

and for more on North Carolina education issues, follow@LindsayWagnerNC