On-line Charter School District Fight in North Carolina

This was a fascinating story on NPR.  There are on-line schools to be sure but apparently there is a (for-profit) company, K-12, Inc. that runs online charter schools in many states and wanted to get into North Carolina.   A little reviewed clause in their charter law allowed a small district to be their authorizer for 4% of the take. 

So you're a little district, low on funds, and you get offered "help" (or a kickback, take your pick) from an outside source with no strings attached (except maybe, stay out of their way).  What would you do? 

It's not a pretty picture. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
Check Steilacoom for a similar story closer to home. There's also a district on the peninsula doing the same - can't remember who.
-CT
6/25/12, 10:26 AM
Anonymous said…
What type of online school do we have in WA state? I know quite a few people who use the online school for math so that they can avoid the discovery math.

FHP
6/25/12, 11:22 AM
Hippy Goodwife said…
We have some friends who use k-12 out of Steilacoom. It is an impressive program from the outside. Their two APP qualified kids are doing well.
6/25/12, 12:02 PM
Anonymous said…
WAVA for one:
http://www.steilacoom.k12.wa.us/domain/280

and here’s an article from PSBJ about some of the sticky points
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/01/12/story2.html?page=all
and another
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/04/27/story6.html

CT
6/25/12, 12:28 PM
Ann said…
My daughter was a student at Insight WA, which is a branch of a national online school system. It was technically overseen by the school district out by Forks, but they did absolutely nothing. At one point, Insight was having huge technical problems and couldn't get a bunch of students, including my kid, logged in to classes at the beginning of the semester. She had to start a week late, which got things off to a terrible start for her. Couldn't get in touch with anyone at Insight, so I left a message for the person at the district who was supposed to be their liaison, never heard back from her either. It was a tremendously disappointing experience, with a poorly designed, canned curriculum, and it was very difficult to get help when needed.
6/25/12, 4:42 PM
Anonymous said…
Insight just fired a whole bunch of people recently... Guess the online schools didn't make enough money.

-CT
6/25/12, 6:09 PM
Jan said…
Am I correct in thinking that WAVA and Insight are two different outfits, each offering an "online school" to Washington public school kids? I should know this (I think at one time, I DID know it).

The impression I am getting from comments is that Insight runs its program badly, but that WAVA actually does pretty well. Is that an accurate assessment?
6/27/12, 7:22 PM
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