This makes no sense

Math is hard.  It is clearly not working in favor of traditional public education.


Bob Hill, superintendent of the Firelands schools, a district that covers Amherst and western Lorain County, said some of the problems come down to simple math.

"Our district gets $4,145 a year per student, but when a student leaves and goes to either a charter school or an online school, the state pays an average of $5,704," he said. "How is that fair? We lose $4,145 and another school gains $5,704. This is what we need to change."

The state contributions to charter and other non-traditional schools were a popular target during the program. The educators said they cannot understand the logic behind the state's funding.

They noted non-traditional schools pay teachers on average of 60 percent less than public schools across the state, often have no buildings to pay for and no  busing, yet those schools get more money from the state government.

A school district gets an average of $3,540 per student from the state, the group said. By contrast, Ohio pays a charter school an average of $7,189 per student, supplies an "e-school" that provides teaching over the Internet an average of $6,658 per student, and gives a voucher with an average worth of $6,774 per student to a private school.

"It's hard to understand why local schools get so little," said Hill.

David vs. Goliath, your tax dollars at work

A grassroots movement is afoot to try to educate the public.  You might think that traditional schools would have an advantage.  This is not the case.  Please see the excellent appeal from Mr. Nottke below.  The competition is for hearts and minds is not in favor of those without multimillion dollar advertising and marketing budgets. The competition is fierce.

"The USA TODAY analysis finds that 10 of the largest for-profit operators have spent an estimated $94.4 million on ads since 2007. The largest, Virginia-based K12 Inc., has spent about $21.5 million in just the first eight months of 2012."

Keep in mind this is just one of many E-schools and charter schools.  Ohio taxpayers are funding this advertising campaign.  I think most taxpayers would be extremely annoyed if they found their local school district was spending any significant money on marketing.

No one should be afraid of improvements and innovation.  However, the school results speak for themselves.  There is an inherent conflict of interest of profits versus student achievement.

An excellent appeal from Bruce Nottke.  I would encourage everyone to sign up for the emails.

Fellow Educators,
My name is Bruce Nottke and I am a board member for the Athens City Schools. I am writing to you in regards to my growing concerns about charter schools. My concerns rest not only with the loss of dollars to public schools, but more importantly with the poor quality of education our students receive from many of the charter schools currently operating in Ohio. The businesses that operate most of the charter school programs clearly have little interest in student achievement, with their primary focus being to make a profit.
I strongly believe that while school administrators understand the dire situation, the typical Ohio taxpayer does not know about or does not fully understand how private businesses are operating charter schools for monetary gain while offering what is often a sub-par educational experience to our children. I believe we, as representatives of the children of Ohio, must make a greater effort to inform the citizens in each of our communities about the issue of charter schools, how their existence drains money from the local public schools, and the fact that charter schools are often less effective in educating our children.
The purpose of this letter is that I would like to encourage each Superintendent and Board Member to sign up for the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy mailing list by sending a request to the following e-mail address: ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net The E&A provides frequent, well written pieces that are intended to inform school personnel and local citizens about issues related to school funding, including the specific concerns with the charter school movement. After signing up for the E&A Listserv, please forward the e-mail notices to your respective local newspapers and members of your communities so that taxpayers can see how our tax money is being wasted on continuing to fund the failed experiment of charter schools. I strongly believe that if more taxpayers know the truth about charter schools in Ohio, they may be motivated to join together to change the conversation at the Statehouse as it relates to charter school legislation.
I am hopeful that every Superintendent and Board Member in Ohio will be willing to band together so we can make a change for the better for public education. Please accept my invitation to clearly communicate about this important issue to members of your community. Thank you in advance for considering my request.
Sincerely,
Bruce Nottke
Athens City School Board

Being a sponser is a pretty profitable gig

As I see it the virtual E-Schools take in $218 million a year.  Using the 3% formula that works out to over $6.5 million per year.

That would be enough to pay 55 people $100,000 per year and still have a million left over for overhead and expense.  With that kind of money you would expect some great oversight and great results.

So what results are we buying Ohio?

"Charter schools are opened by nonprofit organizations called “sponsors” or “authorizers.” Several schools, sponsors and management companies have gotten into trouble – sometimes criminally – for financial problems. Sponsors get 3 percent of the state money that goes to each charter school they open.
The Ohio Department of Education reviewed the new-school approval process for six sponsors. It found:
• The Sharonville-based Education Resource Consultants of Ohio “sought to recycle a school that closed for failing to meet academic requirements.” It said ERCO tried to open the school in the exact location, using the same superintendent and governing authority.
ERCO spokeswoman Jodi Billerman said the state mischaracterized the school. “ERCO would never open a ‘recycled school,’ ” she said. “It’s extremely disappointing that rather than seeking clarification, ODE chose to issue a press release almost immediately after sending the letter to us.”
• The Lebanon-based Warren County Educational Services Center sought to open three charter schools for 175 students each “without performing any basic market research to justify funding.” The state noted the schools’ financials were identical to the Olympus schools that collapsed in the fall. Warren County ESC operates four charter schools, including Greater Ohio Virtual School, a statewide online school.
Isaacs said they provided all the documentation the state asked for, plus some. “They’re in urban areas that have thousands of dropouts. I’m not sure how much more market research they need,” he said.
The schools would have been managed by a company called Cambridge, which operates five dropout schools in Ohio. These would have been run under the same model.
“We’re extremely surprised because (the state) previously approved this model five times by the operator,” Isaacs said.
• Kids Count of Dayton planned a charter school whose developer owes the state $65,000 for another school that closed last year shortly after opening. “The sponsor does not appear to have performed even a basic Internet search to learn about the school developer’s past,” ODE stated.
Kids Count sponsors eight schools, including Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy in the West End, Dohn Community High School in Walnut Hills and Summit Academy of Cincinnati in Spring Grove Village.
Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Richard Ross noted several charter schools statewide had either taken state money but failed to open, or had closed before the end of the school year. ■"

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2014/04/25/charter-school-sponsors-fire/8173173/

NCAA Bans some credits in E-Schools

NCAA Bans Coursework Completed by Athletes in 24 K12 Inc. Virtual Schools

By Michele Molnar on April 23, 2014 5:00 PM| No comments

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) won't accept coursework completed by student athletes at two dozen virtual schools operated by K12, Inc., as of 2014-15, at any Division I or Division II college or university.
K12, the Herndon, Va-based online education company, was notified on April 9 of the development, after learning in 2012 that its schools were placed under NCAA "extended evaluation" review for the eligibility of their courses, according to Mary Gifford, senior vice president of education policy and external relations, during a phone interview today. She called that "a good process where the NCAA reviews courses on an individual basis," but was less sanguine about this latest development.
Students must register for initial-eligibility certification through the NCAA. Most of the students affected by the announcement participate in individual sports like gymnastics, swimming, diving and golf, where the option to attend school online gives them more time to practice and train, she said.
Eleven of the 24 schools impacted are from the California Virtual Academies. Two more K12 schools—San Francisco Flex Academy and Silicon Valley Flex Academy—are blended high schools where students attend the learning center daily and receive face-to-face instruction from certified teachers, according to company spokesman Jeff Kwitowski.
Beyond California, all of the schools are online-only. Three are in Washington state, two in Colorado, and one each in Ohio, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Georgia. A full list of schools is available on the Athletic Scholarships website, which reported that the virtual schools in question are considered "nontraditional high schools" offering courses that don't meet the NCAA's requirements for nontraditional courses.
The NCAA, a private organization, did not respond today to our inquiry seeking an explanation of where K12 fell short in meeting their expectations. K12, a publicly traded company, manages schools and offers blended learning programs in more than 30 states, and enrolls 125,000 students. This ruling by the NCAA would impact less than 1 percent of them, Griffin said.
On its blog, K12 indicated that the NCAA has revised legislation for nontraditional courses, students and instructors. The requirement is that teachers and students must have "ongoing access to one another" and "regular interaction" throughout the duration of the course.
"However [the] NCAA does not provide schools any measurable standard or rubric used to determine what they believe is a suitable level of student-teacher interaction. Despite repeated requests, the NCAA will not publish specific student-teacher interaction guidelines for nontraditional courses, including online and digital courses," wrote Kwitowski in his blog post.
It was in 2009, when students were "moving from sophomores to juniors" in the organization's evolving high school program, that K12 began working with the NCAA to get its courses approved, Gifford said. "In 2012, we shifted from blanket approval to the extended evaluation process, which we didn't have any objection to," as long as there's a rubric to follow to establish and maintain eligibility, she indicated. That rubric has not been forthcoming, nor have the measurements that would explain adequate teacher-student interaction, she said.
One college student, a Division I diver in Arizona who received some of her credits from a K12 school, had the eligibility of her coursework denied, then reinstated when her college appealed, the K12 officials said. The company's own appeal fell on deaf NCAA ears.
"In Arizona, teacher testimony was submitted as part of an appeal. But that was not an acceptable demonstration," Gifford said, noting that written documentation from a credentialed professional was ruled unacceptable.
For students concerned about their eligibility in this school year, the NCAA's Eligibility Center indicated that coursework completed from spring 2013 through spring 2014 will be "subject to further review on a case-by-case basis."
The company has been in the headlines with other bad news this school year, including an under-enrollment of 11,000 students, which hit its stock price last fall. My colleague, Sean Cavanagh, recently reported on an investor lawsuit targeting K12, and the stock sales of its former CEO Ron Packard, as well as the fact that the company launched Fuel Education as a new brand without keeping "K12" in its name.

---

Follow @EdWeekMMolnar and @EdWeekIandI for the latest news on industry and innovation in education.

CURMUDGUCATION: Charter$ & Ca$hing In

CURMUDGUCATION: Charter$ & Ca$hing In: Since the President has declared this week National Charter School Appreciation & General Ain't Charters Swell Week, you are probabl...

E-Schools, Charter Schools and Governance

The E-schools themselves are set up as nonprofits.  The nonprofits are run by an unelected board.  The K-12’s and Connection Academy’s of the world set up the board. The board agrees to contracts with K-12,  OHDELA or Connections Academy without competitive bidding.

The structure encourages malfeasance and the siphoning of profits to the parent companies.  For all intents and purposes the E-Schools run the boards.  The boards depend on the E-schools for the information to manage the school.  The board members are not paid.

An excellent article by Denis Smith here :

http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/26/ohio-denis-smith-on-charter-school-governance-part-2-who-owns-charter-schools/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=28843&relatedposts_position=2

“All control and direction for the school comes on high from corporate, and such constructs as school governing boards and local governance amount to distractions. Clearly, local control is an oxymoron to the Dennis Bakkes of the charter school industry.

The memo also makes it clear that no autonomy is expected of the boards which are chosen mostly by the company’s regional managers. While the best of our nation’s schools usually feature a collaborative model where teams of teachers work with school administrators, privatization of public schools that are operated by national chains seems to come only with a top-down approach, and any semblance of a governing board to provide guidance and oversight for the school’s operations is not to be tolerated in Bakke’s world.

In Ohio, the Revised Code treats a charter school as a school district, with its own treasurer, chief administrative officer, and governing board. But state law also allows great latitude regarding the operation and governance of the school, and current law requires that each school have a minimum of five board members, with no other qualifications stated in the law.”

Denis Smith was a consultant with the Ohio Department of Education and reviewed Ohio Charter schools.  His commentary is available through Diane Ravitch's Blog.  http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/25/denis-smith-of-ohio-who-governs-charter-schools/

Raymond Lambert of Connections Academy once had this to say about boards.  I understand that he has set up many boards in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.

“I wonder why people sit on Boards? Is it a cheap self esteem boost?”

 

 “ I often think the many Boards I have seen are lead around by the nose anyway.”

 

http://www.connectionsacademy.com/news/ray_lambert_school_leader.aspx

I know that the superintendent of Ohio Connections Academy, Marie C. Hanna, recruited her close friend and former neighbor, Pamela S. Bowers, to sit on her board.  Independent?  Objective?

 

Combine a couple of hand-picked board members and combine that with a couple of well-meaning but unqualified parent board members and you have a serious but profitable governance situation.  Again, where is the independence?

Keep in mind that a billion dollars has been transferred out of the public schools to charter schools in Ohio.