Thursday, September 13, 2012

Schools Matter: Tennessee's K12, Inc. Virtual School Receives Lowest Score Possible and $16,000,000 a Year to Pay for It

Schools Matter: Tennessee's K12, Inc. Virtual School Receives Lowest Score Possible and $16,000,000 a Year to Pay for It:


Tennessee's K12, Inc. Virtual School Receives Lowest Score Possible and $16,000,000 a Year to Pay for It

Last week even TFA lawyer and Commissioner of Education in TN had described the for-profit K-12, Inc.'s Tennessee operation as "unacceptable," which is no surprise to anyone who has followed K-12's checkered history, which began when gambling addict, Bill Bennett, leveraged his influence with the Bushies to cart away $14 million in discretionary federal grants to start his online empire.  Bennett resigned in 2005, but the company has continued to expand into 30 states.

Tennessee newspapers reported last week that the Tennessee franchise, which is run through the impoverished Union County Schools in East Tennessee, scored the lowest possible score on the state testing scale: 1 out of 5. That represents the bottom 10 percent in a state that is in bottom 20 percent nationally on NAEP

In July of this year, a new research study was released that demonstrated what a waste of money K-12