K12

Founded in 1999 by Ron Packard , K12 is the nation's largest provider of online charter schools. K12 Inc. was founded by a former Goldman Sachs banker and by William Bennett, the Republican writer and talk-show host, with an infusion of cash from Mike Milken. Its teachers generally work from their homes, communicating with their students by e-mail or phone.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Lisa Gillis of K12 is the Private Sector Chair ALEC's Education Task Force’s Special Needs Subcommittee.

K12 was an Exhibitor at ALEC's annual conference meeting in 2011.

About ALEC

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

Allegations of Low Quality in K12 Schools

K12 has been accused of trying to maximize profits by raising enrollment at the expense of both teachers and students. The schools allegedly make little effort to filter out students that may not be well suited to their program, resulting in many students performing very poorly. According to a study conducted by the National Education Policy Center, only one third of K12's schools achieved adequate yearly progress as defined by No Child Left Behind. And at K12's Agora Cyber Charter School, which produces more than 10% of the company's revenue, nearly 60% of students are behind grade level in math, nearly 50% are behind in reading, and a third do not graduate on time. In addition, withdrawal rates at K12 schools are persistently very high. For example, in 2009-2010 the Agora school had 2,688 students withdraw.

Some K12 teachers claim that they have been encouraged by K12 to pass failing students so that the company can receive more reimbursement from the states in which they operate. The grading policy stipulates that students who do no turn in an assignment are given a score of "50" instead of "0," and failing students are told that late work can be made up without any penalty. K12 receives an average of between $5,500 and $6,000 for every student on its rosters. Much of K12's profits are spent on advertising targeted at increasing enrollment rather than on investments in improving quality. In 2010, it is estimated that K12 spent $26.5 million on advertising.

Teachers at K12 schools are often overwhelmed by a very demanding workload and are paid relatively low wages. According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association, some teachers were required to take on additional students at the rate of $1 per student. Some teachers are forced to manage more than 250 students and work at least 60 hours a week. This means that some teachers have to cut curriculum in order to have enough time to spend on all their students.

Virtual Public School's Act

On May 12, 2011 The Virtual Public Schools Act was passed in Tennessee, and took effect on July 1, 2011. The act states "students in grades kindergarten through twelve (K-12) who were enrolled in and attended a public school during the previous school year shall be eligible to participate in a virtual public education program."

After the law was implemented, K12 made an arrangement with the rural Union County school district, which became the home of the new Tennessee Virtual Academy. Any Tennessee parent can pull her child out of the local system and enroll him in Union and the academy.There are now about 2,000 students in the virtual school, which is just about the same number of people who reside in Maynardville, the Union County seat. The district gets a small cut of the $5,387 in state aid that attaches to each student, while K12 gets the rest.

Lobbying, Political Contributions, and Front Groups

K12 has spent $681,000 on lobbying since 2007 in Pennsylvania, where 10% of its revenue is generated. In addition, K12 and its employees contributed almost $500,000 to candidates for state office across the country between 2004 and 2010.

K12 has also used ostensibly benign front groups to lobby and organize protests on its behalf. The K12-funded group Pennsylvania Families for Public Cyber Schools spent $250,000 on lobbying in the last five years. K12 is also connected to My School, My Choice, a group that organized protests in Ohio against reforming the state formula for financing charter and online schools. The protesters turned out to be paid temp agency workers. Tim Dirrim, the founder the organization, is the board president of the K12-managed Ohio Virtual Academy.

Board

Accessed December 2010:

• Andrew H. Tisch
• Ron Packard
• Guillermo Bron
• Nate Davis
• Steven B. Fink
• Mary Futrell
• Jane M. Swift
• Thomas Wilford

Education Advisory Committee

Accessed December 2010:

• Thomas C. Boysen
• Barbara Byrd-Bennett
• Benjamin Canada
• Jo Lynne DeMary
• David Driscoll
• Chester Finn
• Mary Futrell
• Michael Kirst
• Eliot Levinson
• William Librera
• Dale Mann
• Thomas Payzant
• Betty Rosa
• Robert Spillane
• Bernice Stafford

Contact

URL: http://www.k12.com

Resources and articles

Stephanie Saul, Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools New York Times, December 12, 2011