Zesty Louisiana Education Politics
Attending to the Virtual School Hell in Louisiana
Posted on January 8, 2014
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Danielle Dreilinger, a reporter at Nola.com, has recently written a story about virtual charters in Louisiana that brings home a national story appearing Education Week.
Oregon educator Darcy Bedortha spent 15 months in “virtual-charter hell” teaching for K12, an online education company with a foothold in Louisiana. The company runs the 1,795-student Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy for a nonprofit board and offers 21 free-standing classes through the state’s Course Choice mini-voucher program.
While Danielle’s story is a little short on specifics according to several commenters, it does draw attention to one of the many poorly designed and managed programs John White and LDOE have thrust upon the state as a salvation for high risk students and a “choice” that parents and students need. What is made very clear by Darcy’s story (which I strongly encourage you to read to understand the reality behind the hype about virtual schools and in-line learning) is that many of the Virtual schools promoted by LDOE are not valid choices, not supervised, are designed to drive profit to a few at the expense of many poor and already underserved children in our state and across the nation. Even teachers that want to reach children are unable to because of constraints on their time by the enormous workloads, high student turnover rates, lack of controls and terrible medium. Darcy’s story is powerful but sadly not unique. There is a caveat I would like to add about
