Uh oh! The speculators are speculatin' and the short-sellers are short selling. K-12 Inc. stock is in free-fall and
Andy Rotherham at Eduwonk (who denies holding any shares)
sound downright panicky and hedgey. While he is not currently contracting with K-12, his
Bellweather consulting company has done work with them in the past. The stock market is to edu-profiteers like Rotherham, what standardized test scores are to DOE bureaucrats and big-city mayors, indicators of their future employment and marketability.
The trouble began Monday when a New York Times story by
Stephanie Saul,
"Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools", called out K-12, not on its stock prices, but on how badly its "portfolio schools" like Agora Cyber Charter School are doing.
Agora is one of the largest in a portfolio of similar public schools across the country run by K12. Eight other for-
