D303 Approaching Virtual Charter School With Caution

Concerns about the use of public tax dollars for education to support a for-profit virtual school whose bottom line may take precedence over the education of children is just one of the issues St. Charles officials must consider in a request to establish the area’s first ever virtual charter school.

Dr. Donald Schlomann, superintendent of St. Charles Community Unit School District 303, said early last week that while he believes there will be a time and a place for virtual schools, District 303 has a number of reasons to proceed cautiously on the request by Virtual Learning Solutions to establish a virtual charter school tapping into the enrollment of 18 school districts, from Carpentersville in the north to Bolingbrook and Plainfield in the south, and from DeKalb in the west to Wheaton in the east.

The virtual charter school is being pitched at Tri-Cities school district as well, with presentations already made in Geneva and Batavia.

The virtual charter school proposal carries a cost to all the districts involved, as well. The state law allowing the establishment of charter schools also allows the charter school to be reimbursed on a per-student basis by the participating school district, Schlomann said. The statute sets that reimbursement from about 75 percent to as much as 125 percent of the average amount the district spends to educate each of its students.

In District 303, that average is about $11,400 per student, and Virtual Learning Solutions is asking for 84 percent of that — about $8,800, Schlomann said.

One concern in that regard is that unlike the district, a virtual charter school does not have the overhead costs of maintaining, cleaning and powering school facilities, as well as the personnel costs to ensure a low teacher-student ratio, for example.

District 303’s staff comparison shows the district has 23 students per teacher in K-8, compared to 50 students per teacher through Virtual Learning Solutions, and 21 students per teacher at the high school level, compared to 40 students per teacher in the virtual high school. In terms of administration, the district has 270 students per administrator. Virtual Learning Solutions proposes 1,007 students per administrator.

But there are a variety of other concerns as well, as noted in Pages 12- 17 of the Virtual Learning Solutions presentation to the board, including references to a National Education Policy Center report raising “enormous red flags” about K12.

Tax Dollars for a For-Profit Enterprise?

Of greater concern, however, is the mixing of public education funding with a nonprofit agency — Virtual Learning Solutions — that is contracting with K12, a for-profit business.

According to documents presented to the board on March 18, K12 is the nation’s largest virtual school company, operating 48 full-time virtual schools as of July 2012. Publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, K12 boasts its revenues from managing full-time schools soared 31 percent — from $454 million in fiscal 2011 to $596.1 million in 2012.

Schlomann said it was very clear on March 18 that some of his own concerns in that regard were shared among members of the district’s Board of Education, which held a special meeting that evening to review the Virtual Learning Solutions proposal.

The first issue, Schlomann said, is that the president of Virtual Learning Solutions was acquainted with the for-profit K12 before she recruited and organized her nonprofit’s board.

But of greater concern is the contract Virtual Learning Solutions has with K12. With public schools, Schlomann said, if there is money left over at the end of the school year, the district carries that funding over into the next school year, continuing to direct it into the education of the students. That is not true of the relationship between the nonprofit Virtual Learning Systems and for-profit K12. Schlomann said he has serious concerns because under its contract with K12, any funds left over at the end of the year are considered K12’s.

A for-profit business, he added, is accountable to its investors for turning a profit. A school district’s bottom line, he continued, is measured in the education of its students.

Litany of Other Concerns

The Virtual Learning Solutions presentation documents offered to the District 303 board on March 18 raise a number of other concerns.

K12 students score lower on average in math and reading than their counterparts statewide, the documents state. Also, fewer than half of K12’s students graduate on time; by comparison, the states in which K12 operates have a rate of 79.4 percent of students graduating on time.

Many students apparently abandon the K12 program as well, the documents show.

Even though K12 does not have the facilities overhead that school districts face, the documents state that K12 scrimps on salary and benefits for its teachers and on the money it spends on special education students.

Further, the documents point to a Dec. 12, 2011 New York Times report stating that at one K12 school, high school teaches were managing more than 250 students.

Finally, the report to the board lists a host of legal concerns.

Next Steps

Schlomann said the District 303 Board of Education has much to consider before making its decision, which will come next month.

Under Illinois, a request to organize a charter school must be made to the local board of education, which must decide whether to accept or reject the plan. The board, he said, has 30 days from the date of the March 18 presentation to make a decision, although Schlomann said he believes the board will act on April 9.

Should the board reject Virtual Learning Solutions’ charter school application, the applicant may appeal to the state to overturn the board’s decision, Schlomann said. If the state does that, the school district’s only recourse at that point would be in the court system.

Related:

• Report to the District 303 board: Virtual Learning Solutions Proposal Review
• March 20, 2013: Letter: Forums Put K12 Virtual Charter School in False Light
• March 18, 2013: Letter: Ask Your School Board to 'Vote No' Against Online Charter School
• March 14, 2013: K12 Virtual Charter School Under Heavy Fire by Illinois Jobs Activists
• March 12, 2013: Fox Valley Charter School Controversy: K12 Disputes Grade Tampering Reports

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