Posts tagged ‘K12 Inc’
by John Laesch, posted on Wednesday, January 8th, 2014 at 3:16 pm
In Chicago Rahm Emanuel has closed 50 “underutilized” public schools and is rapidly replacing them with charter schools. The unelected board of education (CPS) will consider 21 total charter applications on January 22nd.
Additionally, a stacked, special “charter school funding task force” put together by Springfield lawmakers and led by State Rep., Dan Burke, will come out with their “findings” prior to the general assembly returning to session (Jan 28th). We expect that Dan Burke will be recommending more money for charter schools – big surprise (possibly at a Jan 13th task force meeting). And, what a waste considering that the “too broke to pay the bills and pensioners” general assembly gave UNO (in Dan Burke’s district) $98 million dollars that was wasted on scandal-riddled construction projects.
The hedge fund managers and their politicians (Rahm, Rauner, Madigan, etc.) are not going to stop their privatization assault on public schools so we need to push back. You can help by attending and bringing a friend to either the Jan 14th event in Chicago, or the second event in the suburbs scheduled on Jan 23rd.
Event details and flyers are below the fold. (more…)
Tags: Bruce Rauner, charter school, chris lubienski, concept charter school, CPS, dan burke, ed burke, federico waitoller, illinois state charter school commission, jean pierce byron sigicho, K12 Inc, Mike Madigan, Rahm Emanuel, raise your hand, sarah hainds, stephanie farmer, uno charter schools, Vincent Gaddis
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by John Laesch, posted on Sunday, April 7th, 2013 at 8:03 am
Pam Verner took the time to contact all 18 school districts and ask when the school board planned on voting for or against the K12 Inc. application for a charter school. Thanks to Heather Steans, Stand for Children, and wealthy charter school backers, the law (SB79) requires school districts to vote 30 days after the public hearing.
While the public comments section is officially closed, we are still encouraging people to attend these hearings, add your comments of opposition at the beginning of the meeting and have your voice heard. Here are the dates that school districts said they anticipated a vote:
April 8, Monday
Naperville District 204 @ 7:00 p.m.
Crouse Education Center
780 Shoreline Drive
Aurora, IL 60504
630-375-3000
West Aurora District 129 @ 6:00 P.M.
West Aurora High School
1201 West New York Street
Aurora, IL 60506
– Meeting will be held in the Library.
Closed session first, then “may” vote on K12.
Geneva District 304 @ 7:00 P.M.
Williamsburg Elementary School
1812 Williamsburg Avenue
Geneva, IL 60134
630-463-3010
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Tags: Algonquin IL, Aurora IL, Batavia IL, Burlington IL, charter schools, DeKalb County, DuPage County, education, Elgin IL, Fox Valley, Geneva IL, Illinois, K12 Inc, Kane County, Kendall County, Malta IL, Naperville IL, Oswego IL, Plainfield IL, Romeovill IL, St Charles IL, Sugar Grove IL, Sycamore IL, virtual charter, Wheaton IL, Will County, Yorkville IL
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by John Laesch, posted on Monday, April 1st, 2013 at 10:55 am
After making 16 similar presentations at public hearings over the course of 10 days in the Fox Valley, and receiving hundreds of tough questions, K12 Inc. finally showed up with a panel of executives. I counted seven K12 Inc. executives, one attorney, and three board members from Virtual Learning Solutions. They were all nicely dressed in business attire, their PowerPoint had new graphics, and their data was still non existent. K12 Inc. had 10 days to do their homework and once again failed to produce any substance.
For almost three hours the D365U School Board kept pushing for data, substance and explanations about K12’s questionable history of grade doctoring, cover-ups, lawsuits, scandals and investor settlements. The board was phenomenal, and Dr. Vince Gaddis (NIJwJ Steering Committee member) drove it home in a “worth the watch 12 speech” below the fold.
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Tags: Bolingbrook IL, Bollingbrook Patch, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Teachers Union, CTU, d365u, economy, education, Illinois General Assembly, K12 Inc, Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice, Occupy movement, Occupy Wall Street, progress illinois, Romeoville IL, vince Gaddis
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by John Laesch, posted on Friday, March 29th, 2013 at 9:16 pm
State Senator Heather Steans and Stand for Children are ultimately responsible for Chicago school closings and the recent increase of charter school applications like the 18-district virtual charter initiated by K12 Inc. in the Chicago suburbs.
Rahm Emanuel, Barb Byrd-Bennett, Heather Steans, Jonah Edelman
I started researching SB79 and HB 5825, the legislation that created and gave the Illinois Charter Commission super “override powers” and autonomy from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). If SB7 gave education activists concern, SB79 and HB 5825 should have started a five-alarm fire.
Because of SB79, K12 Inc., a for-profit, Wall Street-traded company applied for a virtual charter scam in 18 suburban school districts. Why are they doing this? K12 Inc. anticipates that the state charter commission will override local rejections of their taxpayer rip-off scheme and approve the charter despite overwhelming local opposition.
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Tags: Bob Pritchard, charter schools, Chicago IL, Chicago Public Schools, Cook County, CPS, education, HB 5825, Heather Steans, Illinois, Illinois Charter Commission, Illinois General Assembly, Illinois State Board of Education, Jean Pierce, K12 Inc, legislation, Leo Smith, Linda Chapa LaVia, Mike Madigan, Monique Davis, Rahm Emanuel, SB 79, school closings, Stand for Children
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by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 at 5:52 pm
K12 Inc., a for-profit virtual learning company is pitching their services to 18 Illinois school districts, attempting to exploit Illinois’ weak charter laws. K12 Inc. executives have handled presentations at 16 of the 18 schools in which they have submitted an application for a virtual charter. Geneva’s school district 304 held a hearing on March 11th and the applicant did not show. The final hearing is in District 365U (Romeoville and Bolingbrook).
Please join Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice (RSVP via this link) at the final public hearing to express your opposition to K12 Inc’s taxpayer rip-off scheme. This Wall Street company is trying to rip-off taxpayers in the amount of $8,000 per customer (students that they sign up).
When: Wednesday, March 27th @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Valley View D365U School Service Center (755 Dalhart Ave., Romeoville, IL 60446)
The first vote for or against K12’s virtual charter scam is going to be held in East Aurora, District 131. Please join NIJwJ (RSVP via this link) and encourage the board to vote “no.”
When: April 1st @ 7:00 p.m.
Where: School Services Center (417 Fifth St., Aurora, IL 60505)
Tags: Aurora IL, Batavia IL, Bolingbrook IL, Carpentersville IL, charter schools, education, Elgin IL, Geneva IL, Illinois, Illinois Charter Commission, K12 Inc, Kane County, Kendall County, Oswego IL, Randall Greenway, Romeoville IL, School Privatization, Sharnell Jackson, St Charles IL, Yorkville IL
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by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 at 7:33 am
When the K12 Inc. executive stammered, Dean Fisher, a Yorkville School Board member repeated his question, “defend your profit model.” The questions came after the K12 Inc. corporate executive had made a 20-minute presentation to the board and administrators of Yorkville District 115.
The real world questions kept coming like a series of body blows to K12 Inc., the for-profit virtual education provider that has come under fire nationally for low test scores, scandals, lawsuits and cover-ups.
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Tags: Aurora IL, Batavia IL, Carpentersville IL, district 115, district 204, Elgin IL, Geneva IL, K12 Inc, Naperville IL, Oswego IL, Randall Greenway, Sharnell Jackson, St Charles IL, Yorkville IL
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by John Laesch, posted on Sunday, March 17th, 2013 at 8:26 am
We will have some exciting news at the informational meeting on K12 Inc. that is scheduled for Sunday, March 17th from 2-5 p.m. at the Geneva First Congregational Church (321 Hamilton St.) in Geneva, IL!
In addition to hearing from Tennessee State Representative, Gloria Johnson about how k12 Inc. has hurt students and taxpayers in her home state of Tennessee, we will have a charter school expert by the name of Sharon Teefey to share knowledge on Illinois’ Charter Commission.
Teefey will be reporting that State Rep. Chapa LaVia (IL 83rd District) intends to initiate an amendment to address virtual charter schools. According to an e-mail from Rep. Chapa Lavia, she intends to file the following amendment in the house when they return to session.
(l) From April 1, 2013 through April 1, 2016 there shall be a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools with virtual schooling components which includes but is not limited to full-time online virtual schools and virtual blended schools. For the purposes of this subsection (l) virtual blended schools means a virtual school with in-person components.
This moratorium will give Illinois parents and lawmakers more time to study K12 Inc. and their questionable track record of performance.
An amendment is progress, and it shows that organizing works and we need to keep doing more of it!
If you want to support the fight against K12 Inc. and want to see this fight continue, please consider supporting NIJwJ financially.
Tags: charter school, education, Fox Valley, Illinois, K12 Inc, Linda Chapa LaVia, Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice, ron packard, virtual charter
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by John Laesch, posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 at 9:03 pm
K12 Incorporated, a for-profit charter business has a track record of poor academic performance, misleading investors, and deliberately telling teachers to “delete bad grades.” Now, as many Illinois school districts are struggling with shrinking budgets, K12 Inc wants to milk our schools of $8,000 – $11,000 per pupil with a new, “virtual charter school.” In my first piece on this subject, I listed the public hearings for all 18 schools that K12 Virtual Learning Solutions is targeting in the Chicago Suburbs.
K12 Inc. has a Record of Poor Academic Performance and Deletes Grades to Boost Scores.
When I learned that K12 Inc was trying to get their hand in the pocket books of Aurora taxpayers, I started researching the company. One story by investigative reporter, Phil Williams, with Tennessee Channel 5 News exposes an e-mail from the Tennessee Virtual Academy’s vice principal to middle school teachers titled, “important.” The e-mail reads:
“After … looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays,” the email begins.
Among the changes: Each teacher “needs to take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress.”
“Does it talk about we need to make changes in curriculum? Does it talk about we need to make changes in our teaching strategy? No,” Rep. Johnson observed. “Those changes we need to make are deleting grades from the computer system.”
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Tags: charter school, COVA, Illinois General Assembly, K12 Inc, Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice, privatization, Rep. Gloria Johnson, ron packard, virtual, virtual charter school fox river valley
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by John Laesch, posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 at 7:26 am
New rules allow an Illinois charter school to apply for a charter from a local school district and appeal any rejections to the Illinois Charter Commission.
As of this blog post writing, I am aware that K12 Inc. has applied for charter schools in 18 school districts in the Chicago Suburbs. Please plan on attending these hearings (listed below) to ask the board to reject this scandalous business.
In addressing local school boards we need to let them know that K12 Inc. is a business that pays their CEO $3.9 million dollars per year and offers returns to investors. It is not a school. Our tax money is being diverted from the classroom to the pockets of the wealthy. K12 Inc. may perform well on Wall Street, but they don’t perform well in the virtual learning environment. And, according to Channel 5 News in Tennessee, when K12 Inc. fails to perform, they instruct teachers to “delete grades.”
These are the public hearings that we know about:
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Tags: charter schools, DeKalb County, DuPage County, education, Illinois, Illinois Charter Commission, K12 Inc, Kane County, Kendall County, McHenry County, Will County
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