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Virtual schools, brick-and-mortar challenges

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

How many ways can we improve on our public education system? Chartered schools, home schools, Catholic schools, private schools have all been attempts to improve how and what children learn. Alternatives abound, yet the state controled K-12 schools dominate the average American childhood. Now add to the list of suitors for your education dollar – virtual charter schools.

A box arrives at your door, filled with the school supplies your daughter Sally will need for the year. On your home computer, she logs in to her classes, gets lessons from her teacher, completes her homework assignments. No more school bus, cafetaria, gym, bully, favorite teacher, crush on the boy who could draw.

This approach to schooling is picking up steam. In fact, every state that borders North Carolina has a virtual charter school. Yes, even South Carolina.

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Virtual charter school company with NC intentions slapped with class-action lawsuit

February 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A NYC-based law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit in a federal court in Virginia against K12, Inc., the for-profit virtual school company, claiming that its top officials intentionally misled the public and investors about its quality of the education.

The lawsuit was filed Jan. 30, as reported here by the Washington Post.

The claims of fraud at the top levels of the company should be of particular interest here in North Carolina after the company, K12, Inc., (NYSE:LRN) edged its way  into a partnership with the Cabarrus County school system to try and tap into state education dollars.

Stock for the virtual school company had been steadily rising (a high of $39.74 was reached last April) since its 2007 emergence on the market, but plummeted after a critical New York Times article late last year, “Online schools fare better on Wall Street than in classrooms.” The Times investigation found that the company pushed to bring in more profits while students were failing and falling far behind their traditional school peers.

K12 stock was trading at $21.63 a share mid-day today.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual charter school company with NC intentions slapped with class-action lawsuit

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Expect Clash Over Virtual School To Intensify At NC BOE

February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Leanne Winner of the North Carolina School Boards Association thinks online charters should get less money than traditional charters. They don’t have expenses like maintaining a campus, she says, and they don’t need as many teachers.

True, but Kwitowski says online charters have additional technology expenses.

These are arguments that will play out before the state school board. It’s asked the state’s E-Learning Commission for guidance.

The virtual charter school already has an advocate in State Senator Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County. Hartsell helped draft the charter school law passed in 1996.

For the rest of the article, go to Expect Clash Over Virtual School To Intensify At NC BOE

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‘Virtual’ Charter School Goes To State Board For Approval

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Most education organizations and groups have representation in state capitals and we do too,” says Jeff Kwitowski, a spokesman for the company

K12′s North Carolina team includes Jeff Barnhart, a former state representative for Cabarrus County, where the North Carolina Virtual Academy would be based.

K12 probably needs those lobbyists. That’s because the North Carolina School Boards Association and others are making the case against online charters.

“The way our funding formulas work in North Carolina for both the traditional public schools and charter schools is that it’s based upon estimated student counts and home school students aren’t included in those counts,” says Leanne Winner, NCSBA’s chief lobbyist and director of government relations.

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Virtual Charter Academy gains initial approval

January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Cabarrus County Board of Education granted preliminary approval to the application submitted by North Carolina Virtual Charter Academy in a 5-2 vote at its business meeting on Monday.

The application will now be sent to the State Board of Education for approval.

This was the third time the board discussed the application.

If it is approved at the state level, the virtual charter school would be based in Cabarrus County and would enroll students statewide.

It would have North Carolina-certified teachers, and students would have online and hardcopy school materials, said Joseph Chisholm, vice president of school development for K12, Inc., a technology-based education company that provides curriculum, who presented at the board’s business meeting in December.

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Virtual charter school company gets approval in Cabarrus

January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The company hopes to be open to all middle-school and high-school students in the state, and in its application to Cabarrus County estimates it will take in $18 million worth of public funding within a few years.

Taking the online classes would have no cost to parents or students, but the home counties of students would send each enrolled student’s share of state and local funding to the company.

In December, we reported on how the company was courting Cabarrus County as a way to wedge itself into the larger North Carolina market (Click here to read our December report, “Questionable company targets NC for virtual charter school).

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Virtual charter school up for vote in Cabarrus County

January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — North Carolina’s first virtual charter schools could start up in Cabarrus County if board of education officials approve the request Monday night.

According to the request, certified teachers would work from home and students’ work would be supervised by their parents.

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‘Virtual’ Charter School Looks To Cabarrus, Seeks BOE Partnership

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Imagine you’re a kid who has an illness that makes it difficult to leave home, or you get bullied all the time, or you’re way ahead of your grade. This classroom might appeal to you. It’s just you and a friendly voice on the computer.

“This is your research partner speaking. I’ll be guiding you through your ocean exploration,” says the voice as the screen asks you to identify various fish.

This lesson is taught by a for-profit company called K12 Inc. K12 wants to start an online charter school in Cabarrus County called the North Carolina Virtual Academy. In fact, this would be the first online charter school in North Carolina.

The company wants to partner with Cabarrus County Schools. It would be a business arrangement of sorts. The school system would receive up to $550,000 in return for serving as a consultant.

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EARLY GRADUATION: Real learning in virtual school

January 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

GREENSBORO – Former Western Guilford football players Brock and Clayton Stadnik, who graduated from high school early and have enrolled at South Carolina, are just two in an army of students who have or will take online classes this school year through the N.C. Virtual Public School.

“We just passed 50,000 enrollments for this school year (Thursday),” said Ross White, the executive director of the school. “We’re a big school all of a sudden.”

More than 32,000 students took N.C. Virtual Public School courses last school year, according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, making it the second-largest virtual school by enrollment in the country. The N.C. Virtual Public School was indirectly established by the General Assembly and first offered online courses in June 2007.

It provides a greater array of course work than many traditional high schools, including advanced placement and special-needs classes, in addition to opportunities for students to catch up with their classmates or work ahead. Virtual school teachers must meet the same licensing requirements and the course work and students are held to the same standards as those in traditional high schools, state superintendent June Atkinson said.

The technologies used by the virtual school include:

l Video.

l Blogs.

l Wikis, which are web pages that can be modified by several members of a group.

l Active worlds, which allow users to explore 3D virtual reality environments, as in video games.

l Online discussion tools.

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Virtual charter company gets pushback in Western N.C.

January 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cabarrus County didn’t give the warmest welcome to a virtual charter school company that‘s hoping to use the Western North Carolina county to slide into the larger North Carolina’s education market.

The company, K-12, Inc. (NYSE: LRN), wants the school district (which is located just outside of Charlotte) to sponsor an application to the N.C. State Board of Education to open up the state’s first virtual charter school. Then, the company (operating under a yet-to-be created non-profit in order to comply with state laws) would enroll students statewide, siphoning off money from various school districts and sending Cabarrus County a cut of the money their trouble . (Read our investigative article from December to learn more about K12 in North Carolina).

The company hopes to have 2,750 students within a few years, at a cost of $18 million to taxpayers for a quality of education that critics have said is questionable and puts profits before children.

The Cabarrus County School board held a meeting Monday, and several board members questioned why the company wanted to enter the state’s market through them, according to the Concord Independent Tribune.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual charter company gets pushback in Western N.C.

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