Scandalous Tennessee for-profit school has LA ties

A for-profit online school in Tennessee had the lowest results of any similar school in the state and should have been shut down. But because of a well-financed lobbying and public relations campaign, the school will continue to drain resources from public education in the state.

Why is this important to us in Louisiana? Because the Tennessee Virtual Academy’s parent company, K12 Inc., also runs the Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy and virtual learning programs in a few parishes.

According to this report in The Nashville Tennessean, “students in the Tennessee Virtual Academy made less progress as a group in reading, math, science and social studies than students enrolled in all 1,300 other elementary and middle schools who took the same tests. The school fell far short of state expectations for the second year in a row.”

Louisiana used to have a successful and popular state-run program called the Louisiana Virtual School. It has been eliminated by the current administration, to be replaced by providers like K12 Inc.

The Tennessee Virtual Academy was declared “unacceptable” by state education officials nearly a year ago. When lawmakers attempted to rein in the school, K12 Inc. launched a campaign to save its funding.

To fight the legislation, K12 Inc. brought in both a high-powered Nashville lobbying firm and another one founded by the chief advisor to the governor of the state.

As a result of the intense campaign, The Tennessean reported, “the school stands to collect about $5 million in state funds this school year. Last year, the school took in an estimated $15 million.”

K12 Inc. has been at the center of other scandals as well. In Florida, according to this National Public Radio report, the Department of Education investigated K12 “over allegations the company uses uncertified teachers and asked employees to help cover up the practice...K12 officials told certified teachers to sign class rosters that included students they hadn’t taught, according to documents that are part of the investigation.”

In the extremely lucrative world of for-profit education companies, K12 is not the only shady player.  In Pennsylvania, the head of the state’s largest online schools is “alleged to have stolen nearly $1 million in public money and improperly diverted a total of $8 million to avoid federal income taxes,” according to this Education Week report.

No one doubts the potential benefits of virtual learning. But the way that states like Louisiana, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Florida and others have opened their treasuries to for-profit providers provides a tempting target for profiteers.

The Louisiana Virtual School was accomplishing its mission competently and scandal-free. Why would elected officials choose to replace it with a model that has ushered in vultures to pick the bones of public education?

Post-Thanksgiving catch-up

The education world did not stop turning just because teachers and school employees had a few days off for Thanksgiving. Here, briefly, are a few things you might have missed:

BESE election: Following the November 19 general election. Governor Bobby Jindal is in complete command of the state's Board of Elementary and Secondary Eduction. Candidates favored by the governor and others who believe in his style of "reform" swept all three BESE runoffs: Kira Orange-Jones won District 2, Chas Roemer took District 6 and Carolyn Hill won District 8.

According to this article by Advocate reporter Will Sentell, that means the governor "could have the support of nine or 10 members after months of 6-5 votes on key school topics."

The governor's only disappointment in the BESE races came in District 3, where St. Martin Parish School Board Human Relations Director Lottie Beebe defeated long-time incumbent Glenny Lee Bouquet in the October 22 primary.

In this article by Gannett's Mike Hasten, Gov. Jindal reports that he is happy with the new, right-leaning BESE. The new members seem to be struggling to maintain their own identity, but will that last when the governor applies pressure?

Expensive charter school: One charter school in Jefferson Parish spends $87,500 per student, according to this article by Times-Picayune reporter Barri Bronston. The school, which was established to serve students who have been expelled from middle schools for various offenses, has seven teachers and eight students.

That news prompted the Monroe News Star editorial writer to question, in very understated fashion, the wisdom of spending that much money on one school: "it's important to note that even charter schools require some close supervision."

"Within our local systems," the editorial notes, " you could ask Ouachita Parish Superintendent Bob Webber or Monroe City Schools Superintendent Kathleen Harris what they could do with $87,500 per student, and we are quite certain either one of them would respond that an investment of that much public money per student would result in a world-class school system."

Teach for America: The growing influence of Teach for America was explored in this article by Times Picayune reporter Andrew Vanacore.

Once seen as a sort of Peace Corps that brought idealistic young college graduates into hard-to-staff schools, Teach for America has become a political as well as educational force to be reckoned with.

Best known is John White, currently the superintendent of the Recovery School District and Gov. Jindal's pick to replace Paul Pastorek as State Superintendent of Education. But newly minted BESE member Kira Orange-Jones is also a TFT alum, along with the new executive director of BESE and Gov. Jindal's new policy advisor.

A little justice for some Filipino teachers: The Caddo Parish School Board has done the right thing and settled with the U.S. Department of Labor, awarding Filipino teachers in the parish some $1,300 each because of their entanglement with a crooked recruiting firm.

It is a small step to correct a much larger injustice. The settlement only applies to a specific charge brought by the U.S. Department of Labor against the Caddo school board. It leaves open U.S. allegations against other school systems, and does not deal with the LFT complaint, filed with the State Workforce Commission, that Filipino teachers were forced to pay fees that should have been paid by school boards under Louisiana law.

Value Added Model: As the state tests a new teacher evaluation scheme called the Value Added Model, questions are popping up about how fair it will be.

Reporter Sue Lincoln filed this story for the Southern Education Desk, in which LFT President Steve Monaghan questions how well the new system will actually measure teacher effectiveness.

The privatization of public education: In an epic article for The Nation, reporter Lee Fang exposed the "quiet but astonishing national transformation" of public education into a cash machine for big business.

Lobbyists, he writes, have "combin(ed) the financial firepower of their corporate clients with the seeming legitimacy of privatization-minded school-reform think tanks and foundations."

Focusing on virtual schools, he writes, "This legislative juggernaut has coincided with a gold rush of investors clamoring to get a piece of the K-12 education market. It’s big business, and getting bigger: One study estimated that revenues from the K-12 online learning industry will grow by 43 percent between 2010 and 2015, with revenues reaching $24.4 billion."

Local Federation chapters grow together: Educators in Caddo and Bossier parishes can expect to see their influence grow with the creation of the new Red River United Federation.

As reported here by Mary Nash-Wood of the Shreveport Times, the new organization combines the power of the Caddo Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel and the Bossier Federation of Teachers and School Employees.

"It will essentially be a super group over the two organizations," said CFT President Jackie Lansdale.

Virtual school will take real money from public education

As Louisiana continues its headlong rush to dismantle public education, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is gearing up to accept students for the state's first online charter school.

As Will Sentell of The Advocate reports here, the Louisiana Connections Academy is a virtual school with no campus, library, lunchroom, gym, classroom or school bus. Yet it will collect 90 percent of the state Minimum Foundation Program allocation for each of its students.

So even as Gov. Jindal continues his bogus claim that public education funding has been saved from the budget axe, he and his allies in public education's Claiborne Building are conspiring to funnel more funds away from public schools and into dubious enterprises.

Virtual school committee bickers over makeup

Are online charter schools the heralds of a new era in public education, or a scam to fleece local school boards out of per-pupil money while promising students they can earn that high school diploma without taking off their jammies?

A Board of Elementary and Secondary Education committee might resolve that issue, but not before members stop bickering about the makeup of the committee.

As Advocate reporter Will Sentell writes here, some committee members are complaining that the panel is "too narrow and not what the board envisioned."

If these preliminaries are any indication, the real fight over virtual charter schools ought to be a humdinger.

The ultimate question is a serious one. Should we really encourage charter schools in which children from all over the state log onto their computers for classes, with no need to ever meet with other students?

And should local school boards be forced to turn over 100% of per-pupil funding for schools that exist only in cyberspace, and that don't require transportation, classrooms, libraries, gyms, athletic facilities or administrative offices?

It looks like there could be a big profit margin there for the operators of these virtual schools. The committee should stop bickering and start investigating.

Charter schools = unfunded mandates?

The Louisiana Legislature seems to have no problem holding two contradictory positions at the same time.

On one hand, lawmakers recently condemned "unfunded mandates" - requirements that local governments pick up the tab for programs required by the state.

But on the other hand, the legislature adopted a law that forces local school boards to pay for charter schools approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education once the local denies the charter application.

School superintendents are launching a campaign against this particular unfunded mandate, as Advocate reporter Charles Lussiere writes here.

It's going to be a hot issue, especially now that statewide "virtual" charter schools loom on the horizon.

Virtual schools have pitfalls, says Steve Monaghan

(Left: LFT President Steve Monaghan speaks to a BESE committee about virtual charter schools.)

So-called virtual schools have a poor track record educating students, and are attractive targets for money-grabbing vendors, according to reports that LFT President Steve Monaghan shared with the state board of education on Wednesday.

His presentation contrasted starkly with information provided by Department of Education staff and a spokesperson for virtual charter schools, who pretty much promised rainbows and ponies if Louisiana allows the creation of schools that exist mainly on the Internet.

Next month, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will consider requests to open three virtual charter schools. The schools will have no campus. Instead, children will log onto their computers and take all their courses online. One of those schools, Louisiana Connections Academy, is represented by Adams and Reese, the law firm where Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek used to work.

Department staff told BESE that they looked hard for studies about virtual charter schools. They provided four glowing reports for board members. Apparently they could not locate the RAND Corporation study that Monaghan talked about in his presentation.

The RAND study said that students in California's virtual charter schools had lower test scores than other students.

Other studies cited by Monaghan raised questions about funding. One characterized virtual charter schools as "a back-door voucher program for home schoolers and other students who have opted out of public education but still want access to the system’s funding..."

To read more about Monaghan's presentation, please click here.

In other business on Wednesday, a BESE committee discussed a $1 million dollar contract to train new teachers, even though, as reporter Will Sentell wrote for The Advocate, some say there is already a "glut of teachers."

A BESE panel also discussed the controversial Science Education Act, which opponents say could open the door to teaching religious dogma instead of science. The panel approved a set of guidelines to be followed if people "object to materials that challenge the teaching of evolution kin public school science classes," according to a report by Will Sentell.