CHARTER FLAWS: Online "Schools" vs. Traditional Bricks & Mortar Weighed
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Little Red Schoolhouse, like this one on display at the Otsego County Fairgrounds, are not only anachronisms, their successor bricks and mortar schools are fast being replaced by charter and cyber academies.
Should school children be "commoditized" by private sector profiteers?
Or, even more troubling, are school children being used as a 'wedge issue' in promotion of right wing conservative politics?
Those are basic questions being raised by educators about the Michigan charter school program that has arisen in the past two decades.
Former governor John Engler has been revealed to be leading the rapid conversion of traditional Michigan public schools to profit centers for K-12, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange listed corporation.
K-12, Inc. was founded by William Bennett, Republican talk-show host and former U.S. Department of Education chief, with funding from convicted junk-bond dealer Mike Milken. Bennett resigned from K-12 Inc. in 2005 after making controversial remarks about blacks and abortion.
"Could this be any more a recipe for theft and corruption from poor school systems?" charged a critic on a blog called Truth About K-12 Inc. "Recall that convicted Wall St. felon Michael Milken has requested several Presidential pardons since his release from prison in the early 1990s and even George Bush refused to pardon him."
K-12 Inc.'s lobbying prowess and political connections have spurred its growth nationally. Enabling charter school legislation from the much criticized American Legislation Exchange Council (ALEC), has been adopted by many states.
Both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have lobbied for the online schools.
Based in Herndon, Virginia, the company's 59 full-time schools enroll more than 100,000 students in 29 states. Much of the company's $522 million in 2011 revenues came from "turnkey" or "sweeps" management contracts with those virtual public charter schools.
National attention was heightened by an article in The Nation magazine on Dec. 5, 2011, headlined: "How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools."
Bloomberg's Market Watchlist commented: "K-12 Inc. (LRN) was heralded as the next revolution in schooling. Billionaire Michael Milken backed it, and former Florida governor Jeb Bush praised it. Now the online education pioneer is failing to live up to its promise."
Forbes Magazine commented: "Nor does the evidence show that charters spend taxpayers' money more efficiently. Researchers from Michigan State and the University of Utah studied charters in Michigan, finding they spent $774 more per student on administration, and $1,140 less on instruction. About the only thing charters do well is limit the influence of teachers' unions. And fatten their investors' portfolios."
The Detroit Free Press reported Dec. 8, 2012: "K-12 Inc. has not had major success meeting the Average Yearly Progress standard: Of the 39 virtual schools that K-12 Inc. operates that received an AYP rating in 2010, 13 met the standards."
As a board member of K-12 Inc., Engler has used his political influence with the Republican Party to open the purse strings of the state he once headed, some critics allege.
Engler's college roommate and former lieutenant governor Dick Posthumus, whose daughter State Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons, R-Lowell, heads the House Education committee, are seen as collaborators in the destruction of the traditional public schools. Dick Posthumus is an important advisor to Gov. Rick Snyder.
And Engler's sponsorship of Proposal A in 1994, shifting school funding from local taxpayers to the state, is now viewed with suspicion as having been a cynical ploy paving the way for the growth of corporate education firms like K-12 Inc. through the state education budget.
Charter and cyber (computer-based learning) schools and programs of K-12 Inc., through its Michigan Virtual Charter Academy, and other cyber firms like Connections Academy reportedly enroll 20,000 students in Michigan. If the figures are correct, that would mean K-12 Inc. is drawing off about $140 million per year in state funds that otherwise would go to traditional schools.
However, the bloom may be off the rose, as the saying goes.
John Hechinger, one of the nation's top investigative reporters, has written about K-12, Inc. on Bloomberg.com:
"Plagued by subpar test scores, the largest operator of online public schools in the U.S. has lost management contracts or been threatened with school shutdowns in five states this year. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ruled in April that students can no longer count credits from 24 K-12 Inc. high schools toward athletic scholarships.
"While the company says its investments in academic quality are starting to pay off, once-soaring enrollment at the more than 60 public schools it manages has dropped almost 5 percent. Targeted by short sellers, who benefit from a company's decline, K-12 Inc. shares have tumbled by two-thirds since reaching a near-record high in September 2013...
Hechinger and New York education critic Diane Ravitch went on:
"Of the full-time online schools assigned ratings by their states, only one-third were considered academically acceptable in 2012-2013, the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado reported this year. The percentage of K-12 Inc. students achieving proficiency on state math and reading tests is generally below state averages, according to the company's 2014 academic report.
"Ohio Virtual Academy, which accounts for 10 percent of K-12 Inc.'s annual revenue, received failing grades on a state report card last year for student test-score progress and graduation rates. Only 37 percent of its ninth graders receive diplomas within four years.
"Several online charters have canceled their contracts with K-12 Inc. In Tennessee, education commissioner Kevin Huffman is moving to close a K-12 Inc.-managed school unless it can improve results by the end of this school year. Tennessee Virtual Academy has test results 'in the bottom of the bottom tier' and is an 'abject failure' in improving student outcomes, Huffman said."
The entire Michigan model of charter schools has come under scrutiny recently, partly in the wake of the federal indictment of a former Traverse City school operator, Steven Ingersoll, and his wife and partners, on federal bank fraud and other charges.
National media attention has been attracted to the Ingersoll case as well as the growing K-12 Inc. incursion into Michigan. The online school aspect (i.e., kids sitting home on a computer with remote teacher supervision) is questioned. "Computer savvy kids realizing their full academic potential," or multiple high volume profit centers?
Cyberschool teachers sometimes supervise 200 or more children on computers, according to some reports. "With that high volume/low cost of academic supervision, the profit is astounding," said one operator of a Detroit area educational contracting firm.
Anita Senkowski, charter school critic, has written:
"This is a critical time for charter schools in Michigan, as they are increasingly held by some of our politicians as a solution for failing public schools. But the entire model of using education management companies may be flawed, causing inherent conflicts between the goals of public education and for-profit business."
Also, the use of tax exempt municipal bonds to finance charter school construction has raised some eyebrows from citizens around Michigan who are struggling to keep their public school buildings operational.
The U.S. Department of Education states: "Michigan. A major role of the Michigan Public Educational Facilities Authority (MPEFA or Authority), created in 2002, has been helping charter schools -- known in Michigan as public school academies -- to acquire tax-exempt bond financing. Since 2003, MPEFA has been an active conduit issuer for charter schools.
"MPEFA financial manager Kathleen O'Keefe notes that this conduit issuer provides some benefits that commercial financiers cannot offer. For example, MPEFA can intercept a charter school's per-pupil funding from the state, diverting it to pay bondholders directly, a service that makes the bonds more appealing to buyers because it decreases the risk that schools will pay their lenders late or not at all. In the same vein, she says, the Authority's close relationship with the Michigan Department of Education allows it to productively and quickly deal with "any hiccups in state aid payments" that otherwise might interfere with charter schools making timely payment on bond debt.*.
In financing the construction and continuing development of the 1,200 student Grand Traverse Academy, Dr. Ingersoll used two tax exempt municipal bond issues totaling about $25 million, to build a campus rivaling a small college.
"According to Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA), one important aspect of MPEFA's work is that, by creating a "healthy infrastructure" for charter schools to seek bond funding, it has fueled the development of a bond-financing market in Michigan for charter schools. This has come about in part, Quisenberry says, because the conduit issuer's oversight on bond deals has given investors more comfort in buying charter school bonds."
"In part, it's the tax code that makes charter schools so lucrative: Under the federal 'New Markets Tax Credit' program that became law toward the end of the Clinton presidency, firms that invest in charters and other projects located in 'under-served' areas can collect a generous tax credit -- up to 39% -- to offset their costs.
"So attractive is the math, according to a 2010 article by Juan Gonzalez in the New York Daily News, 'that a lender who uses it can almost double his money in seven years.'
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tennis1960 Says:
On January 14, 2015
at 07:47 PM
Got to love the "Business" of education in this country of ours. I would like for you to look into the "Business" of the college education system as well. When lots of countries offer free education to their citizens but, to foreigners as well it seems that capitalistic countries forget how they got to the economic prosperity. I don't ever remember the constitution mentioning that to get educated would cost you money but to be loyal, support Democracy and defend freedom from tyranny. Well I guess they forgot to include "Freedom of Education". 90% of all college graduates will die owing the federal Student loan system. Sad, sad and SAD!
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calberts Says:
On January 15, 2015
at 11:47 AM
The link to the Truth About K12, Inc. site mentioned in the article: https://cyberschools.wordpress.com/
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Geraldine42 Says:
On January 19, 2015
at 10:18 AM
Wow Dave, keep waking us up about this stuff will you?
The morning "news" shows have nothing on them anymore but movie gossip! |
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Dave Rogers |
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