Virtual charter school network making profit at the expense of California schoolchildren, study finds
California schoolchildren studying at home through a growing network of for-profit online charter schools often lack functional computers and other materials they need to learn -- even as millions in state tax dollars flow to the schools' operator, according to a report released Thursday.
California Virtual Academy's high schools graduated just 36 percent of their students from 2011 to 2013 and had more dropouts than graduates, the report found.
"This is not what virtual education in California should look like," concludes the report by In the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C.-based research group that focuses on contracting and privatization.
The troubling findings about the network's academic performance, resources and finances suggest that the company managing the 11 California schools -- Virginia-based K12 and its California subsidiary, K12 California -- is rewarding shareholders and executives at the expense of the 14,500 children enrolled in them from kindergarten through grade 12.
"There's an increased feeling that corners are being cut so that profits can be maximized," said Cara Bryant, who has taught for nine years at a Davis school operated by K12.
One of the largest virtual charter-school companies in the nation, K12 manages -- and sells technology and other services to -- online schools in dozens of states. One of the 11 California Virtual Academies is based in San Mateo County, which is permitted to enroll students from the adjacent counties of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Alameda.
In the Public Interest did not contact K12 or K12 California before releasing the report, which the head of school at California Virtual Academies, Katrina Abston, called "inaccurate and deeply flawed."
In a statement, Abston accused the organization of having a bias against publicly funded, privately run charter schools and getting much its information from the California Teachers Association. (The report's 16-page appendix lists numerous sources for its data, including the California Department of Education, news stories and interviews.)
"Our schools provide families a public school option for children who need alternatives to traditional public school," Abston said. "Efforts by powerful special interests opposed to charter schools and parent choice will not deter us from that commitment."
The report highlights a complicated relationship between the taxpayer-funded schools and their for-profit operators that allows for self-dealing and conflicts of interest.
Through its California subsidiary, the company not only manages the schools and control their bank accounts but also serves as its main vendor; contracts reviewed by researchers forbid the schools from seeking competitive bids from other companies, the report found.
In exchange for management, technology and administrative services, K12 received $47 million from the California schools -- nearly half of K12's total revenue -- during the 2012-13 school year, the report found.
How much of those dollars were spent on services for California schools and how much paid for profits, advertising and executive pay remains a mystery, said Shahrzad Habibi, the lead author.
K12's top executive in 2011-12 received nearly $4 million in pay and bonuses, while teachers in the California network averaged wages of about $36,000 -- at least $20,000 less than the public school teachers in the area, a disparity that fueled teacher turnover, the report found.
Teachers interviewed in the report said that in the push to expand, the company aggressively recruited and enrolled students who weren't likely to succeed in an online-only setting. The report also suggested the network encouraged teachers to fudge student-attendance records, instructing teachers to mark students as present even if they had logged on to the system for a single minute Virtual charter school network making profit at the expense of California schoolchildren, study finds - ContraCostaTimes.com:
