User:Agmacq/Controversies draft

Controversies

The New York Times investigated K12 and concluded that the company squeezes profits from public-school funding by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload, and lowering standards. The Washington Post raised similar issues.

A study at Western Michigan University and the National Education Policy Center found that only a third of K12’s schools achieved Adequate Yearly Progress, which is required for public schools by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation. According to the Times, "By almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School [a school run by K12] is failing." In Pennsylvania, 42% of Agora students tested at grade level or better in math, compared with 75% of students statewide. 52% of Agora students tested at grade level or better in reading, compared with 72% statewide. Nonetheless, Agora brought K12 $72 million in the 2011 school year – more than 10% of K12's revenue. Proponents argue that such statistics are undermined by the fact that a significant proportion of newly enrolled students begin several grade levels behind because of an alleged failure of brick and mortar schools.. Education reformers such as United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, have further stated that AYP is not an accurate measure of a school’s performance and estimated that under NCLB, as many as "82 percent of America's schools could be labeled 'failing'".

Some school officials have raised concerns that children's early development requires social interaction that online schools fail to provide. Proponents of online education say that social interaction is healthier and reflects life better when it takes place in a mixed-age group as found in the after-school activities in which many online students regularly take part.

Operating costs for online programs are generally lower than traditional schools, although the cost per student for an online education program can vary widely, depending on where the school is chartered, where the student lives, and which services are purchased by the school district. On average, online schools receive less in revenue than brick and mortar charter schools and district schools, although in some states, online companies are paid nearly as much money per student as brick and morter charter schools.

The New York Times wrote that company profits are used to pay for advertising and lobbying state officials. K12 spent $26.5M on advertising in 2010 and the company and its employees contributed nearly $500,000 to state political candidates from 2004 to 2010. K12 has contributed money to organizations like Pennsylvania Families for Public Cyber Schools, which lobbied for online schools. In Ohio, an organization founded by a K12 official hired temp agency workers to demonstrate with signs against state representative Steven Dryer, who challenged their funding.

In 2005, the Philadelphia Board of Education called for the termination of a $3M science curriculum contract with K12 after the company's co-founder William Bennett, a former U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, said, "if you wanted to reduce crime ... you could abort every black baby in the country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down." Bennett subsequently resigned from the K12 board and his part-time position with K12. The contract was not revoked, but was not renewed at the end of the contract term.